Victory Capital Management Inc. Purchases 79,621 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 135.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 138,555 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,621 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Geron were worth $587,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Geron by 32.7% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its stake in shares of Geron by 12.3% in the first 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 raised its stake in Geron by 7.3% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 104,924 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 7,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC raised its stake in Geron by 870.0% during the first 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. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Barclays began coverage on Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price for the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.06.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of GERN opened at $4.71 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. 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 moving average price is $4.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.05.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

About Geron

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.