Short Interest in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Drops By 8.0%

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 70,130,000 shares, a drop of 8.0% from the October 31st total of 76,240,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,570,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.2 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Darwin Global Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $106,185,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,315,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Geron by 999.7% during 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 period. Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $539,000. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Geron by 124.6% during the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $71,389,000 after purchasing an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.05.

Geron Trading Down 2.2 %

NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $3.95. 3,125,330 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,290,394. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.63 and a beta of 0.51. Geron has a 52 week low of $1.64 and a 52 week high of $5.34. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $4.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.33. 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 (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.05. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The business had revenue of $28.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.08) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current 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.