New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 87,441 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 33.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 171,453 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 87,441 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Geron were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. RTW Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the third quarter valued at approximately $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Geron by 140.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 28.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $131,486,000 after buying an additional 6,413,204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Triangle Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Geron in the third quarter valued at $15,214,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Geron Price Performance

NASDAQ:GERN opened at $1.66 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.19 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $2.90 and a 200 day moving average of $3.75. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.46 and a 52-week high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. On average, research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on Geron from $7.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.68.

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.