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

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 74.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,462,941 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 7,233,594 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.41% of Geron worth $8,719,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GERN. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Geron by 114.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 267,629 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $947,000 after buying an additional 116,074 shares during the last quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $93,000. Rovin Capital UT ADV raised its holdings in Geron by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Geron by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 403,703 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,429,000 after purchasing an additional 61,819 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GERN has been the topic of several recent research reports. B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Geron from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.06.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.19 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $754.75 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.70 and a beta of 0.76. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.17 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $1.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.72.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The company had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.88 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.07) earnings per share. Geron’s quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.