Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Raises Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 262,324 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,608 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Geron were worth $1,112,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 64,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $212,000 after purchasing an additional 7,034 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Geron by 7.3% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 104,924 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $445,000 after purchasing an additional 7,115 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 870.0% in the first quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the first quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 9.0% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 130,316 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $430,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on GERN. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price for the company. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.06.

Geron Stock Down 3.1 %

Shares of GERN opened at $4.37 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $4.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $3.96. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.49 and a beta of 0.50.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The firm had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.34 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.09) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Geron Company Profile

Geron Corporation, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for myeloid hematologic malignancies. It develops imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, which inhibits the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant stem and progenitor cells in myeloid hematologic malignancies for the treatment of low or intermediate-1 risk myelodysplastic syndromes and intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis.