Short Interest in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Increases By 6.5%

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the target of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 71,510,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the August 31st total of 67,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 9,480,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Insider Activity

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 870.0% in the first quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 8,700 shares during the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the first quarter valued at about $34,000. American Trust acquired a new stake in Geron during the first quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Geron by 32.7% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Price Performance

GERN stock opened at $4.41 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.60 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.16.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10). Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. The firm had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.34 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.09) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Geron will post -0.34 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on GERN shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Barclays started coverage on Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.06.

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.