Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Short Interest Update

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 45,630,000 shares, a decline of 21.9% from the February 28th total of 58,410,000 shares. Currently, 7.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 15,110,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GERN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.75.

Institutional Trading of Geron

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GERN. RTW Investments LP purchased a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $200,268,000. Nvest Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth $693,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Geron by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,523,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $16,014,000 after acquiring an additional 73,482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Geron by 114.9% during the 3rd 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. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Geron Stock Performance

Geron stock traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $1.59. 17,863,278 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,402,947. The stock has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $2.24 and its 200 day moving average is $3.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.45 and a 52-week high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.29 million. Analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.