Traders Buy Large Volume of Geron Call Options (NASDAQ:GERN)

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 11,465 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 578% compared to the average daily volume of 1,691 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at $45,000. Fifth Lane Capital LP bought a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Readystate Asset Management LP bought a new position in Geron during the third quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Down 32.7 %

GERN stock traded down $0.78 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $1.59. 56,616,026 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,257,686. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $3.05 and its 200-day moving average is $3.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.46 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The company has a market cap of $963.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.98 and a beta of 0.53.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GERN shares. B. Riley cut their target price on Geron from $5.50 to $3.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Barclays raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.91.

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.