Headlands Technologies LLC Acquires 217,618 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Headlands Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 20,112.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 218,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 217,618 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC’s holdings in Geron were worth $774,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Geron by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,450,382 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $20,205,000 after purchasing an additional 111,361 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Geron by 519.0% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 205,332 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $932,000 after buying an additional 172,160 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 13.2% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,020,743 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,634,000 after acquiring an additional 118,688 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 256.6% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 47,455 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $215,000 after acquiring an additional 34,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on GERN. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley lowered Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.75.

Geron Stock Up 7.4 %

Geron stock opened at $1.59 on Thursday. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $2.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.54. Geron Co. has a 1-year low of $1.45 and a 1-year high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Geron Company 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.