Empowered Funds LLC Acquires Shares of 14,727 Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 14,727 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in Geron by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 115,400 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 3,465 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Geron by 13.6% in the third quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 30,674 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,668 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 3,805 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 23.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 21,802 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 4,094 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 32.6% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 22,630 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $103,000 after buying an additional 5,559 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on GERN. Scotiabank started coverage on Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. HC Wainwright initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price for the company. Finally, Leerink Partners started coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.05.

Geron Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of GERN opened at $4.06 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $4.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.32. Geron Co. has a twelve month low of $1.64 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.72 and a beta of 0.52.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Geron’s quarterly revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.25 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.