Barclays PLC Raises Stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Barclays PLC raised its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 17.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,528,749 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 228,837 shares during the period. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Geron were worth $5,412,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in Geron by 30.7% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 47,477 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $216,000 after purchasing an additional 11,149 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 10,151.4% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,029,553 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,674,000 after buying an additional 1,019,510 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Geron by 461.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 79,923 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $331,000 after acquiring an additional 65,687 shares in the last quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,109,000. Finally, Moody National Bank Trust Division raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 76.6% in the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 267,629 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $947,000 after purchasing an additional 116,074 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GERN shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. 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 research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Geron Price Performance

GERN stock opened at $1.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $1.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.93. Geron Co. has a 12 month low of $1.17 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The company has a market capitalization of $904.42 million, a P/E ratio of -4.44 and a beta of 0.66.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The business had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

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.