Affinity Asset Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Affinity Asset Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 50.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,250,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 750,000 shares during the period. Geron makes up 1.1% of Affinity Asset Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC owned about 0.37% of Geron worth $7,965,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in Geron by 82.6% in the fourth quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $26,360,000 after acquiring an additional 3,369,196 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter valued at $5,143,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Geron by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $118,727,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,912 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 10,151.4% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,029,553 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $4,674,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exome Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $4,109,000. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank decreased 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 note on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley cut shares of 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 report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $5.75.

Geron Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of GERN stock traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.27. 8,286,588 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,468,774. Geron Co. has a 1 year low of $1.17 and a 1 year high of $5.34. The firm has a market cap of $808.88 million, a PE ratio of -3.97 and a beta of 0.66. The company's 50 day moving average is $1.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.02. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The company had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 EPS 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.