Creative Planning Has $421,000 Stock Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Creative Planning increased its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 23.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 92,784 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,837 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Geron were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 4.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after buying an additional 1,304,713 shares during the period. Darwin Global Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Geron in the second quarter valued at approximately $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 124.6% in the second quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $71,389,000 after buying an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the first quarter valued at approximately $8,250,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Geron by 999.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,815,000 after buying an additional 1,877,184 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geron Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Geron stock opened at $4.29 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.30. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $5.34. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.92 and a beta of 0.52. 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 (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting 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 business had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.34 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.09) earnings per share. Geron’s revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GERN. StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.05.

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.