Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 30.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 91,134 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 39,115 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Geron were worth $386,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $98,569,000 after buying an additional 1,304,713 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $24,734,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Geron by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,842,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,108,000 after purchasing an additional 208,170 shares during the last quarter. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the first quarter valued at $8,250,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Geron by 999.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,877,184 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Barclays started coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target for 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 report on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.06.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $4.51 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.89 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a current ratio of 3.61. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $4.57 and a 200-day moving average of $3.95.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10). The company had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. Geron’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of Geron stock in a transaction on 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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.