Profund Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Profund Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 51.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 183,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 193,104 shares during the quarter. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in Geron were worth $777,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Geron by 870.0% during 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 Geron in the first quarter worth about $34,000. American Trust bought a new position in shares of Geron in the first quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Geron by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on GERN. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays began coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.06.

Insider Transactions at Geron

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $4.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.14 and a beta of 0.50. Geron Co. has a 1 year low of $1.64 and a 1 year high of $5.34. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.08. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.09) earnings per share. Geron’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.