Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 41,372 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 45.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 49,762 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 41,372 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Geron were worth $226,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Geron by 4.6% during the first 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. Darwin Global Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Geron during the 2nd quarter valued at $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 124.6% in the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $71,389,000 after purchasing an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Geron by 999.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,877,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 26.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,016,622 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,550,000 after purchasing an additional 415,883 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of GERN stock opened at $4.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.48 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.81 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $4.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.32. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $28.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Geron’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.08) EPS. Research analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.