Lion Point Capital LP Buys 30,000 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Lion Point Capital LP boosted its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 630,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,000 shares during the period. Geron accounts for 4.9% of Lion Point Capital LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Lion Point Capital LP owned about 0.11% of Geron worth $2,671,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares during the period. Darwin Global Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter valued at approximately $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 124.6% during the second quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $71,389,000 after purchasing an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Geron by 5.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Affinity Asset Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron in the 1st quarter worth $8,250,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of Geron stock opened at $4.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.66 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.09. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly 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). 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 the consensus estimate of $0.34 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.09) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.34 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on GERN shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.06.

Geron Company 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.