HighVista Strategies LLC Trims Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

HighVista Strategies LLC reduced its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 25.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 179,799 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 60,435 shares during the quarter. HighVista Strategies LLC’s holdings in Geron were worth $762,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Geron by 1,200.0% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 870.0% during the 1st quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. American Trust acquired a new position in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Geron by 32.7% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 3,805 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN opened at $4.71 on Monday. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.64 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The stock has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.46 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 3.60.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. The company had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.34 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.09) earnings per share. Geron’s revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target for the company. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.06.

Geron 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.