Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Bought by Bank of New York Mellon Corp

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 26.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,016,622 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after buying an additional 415,883 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 0.34% of Geron worth $8,550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $98,569,000 after buying an additional 1,304,713 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at $24,734,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Geron by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,842,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $8,108,000 after purchasing an additional 208,170 shares during the last quarter. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at $8,250,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Geron by 999.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $6,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,877,184 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geron Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $4.39. The company had a trading volume of 5,136,095 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,908,009. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.54 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Geron Co. has a 1 year low of $1.64 and a 1 year high of $5.34. The company has a 50-day moving average of $4.57 and a 200 day moving average of $3.91.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $0.34 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.09) EPS. The company's revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on GERN. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partners began coverage on Geron in a research note on Monday. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com raised Geron to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $7.06.

Insider Activity at Geron

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.