TD Asset Management Inc Increases Stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 403.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,201,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after buying an additional 962,400 shares during the quarter. TD Asset Management Inc owned 0.20% of Geron worth $5,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 210,890 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 25,959 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Geron by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 61,909 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $131,000 after purchasing an additional 13,596 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Geron by 5.7% during the fourth 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 period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Geron by 37.9% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 714,012 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 196,328 shares during the period. Finally, Crestline Management LP increased its position in Geron by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 687,378 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,450,000 after buying an additional 102,227 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GERN. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $7.06.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of Geron stock traded up $0.06 during trading on Thursday, reaching $4.45. 4,827,758 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,873,271. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 3.60. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.71 and a beta of 0.50.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.10). The business had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. The company's revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of Geron stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Geron 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.