Farallon Capital Management LLC Has $71.39 Million Position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) by 124.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after acquiring an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC owned approximately 2.84% of Geron worth $71,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 4.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 1st quarter worth approximately $8,250,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Geron by 999.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $6,815,000 after buying an additional 1,877,184 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Geron by 26.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,016,622 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $8,550,000 after buying an additional 415,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Geron Trading Up 7.5 %

GERN stock traded up $0.32 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $4.60. The stock had a trading volume of 8,561,446 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,870,703. The firm has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.23 and a beta of 0.50. Geron Co. has a twelve month low of $1.64 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.06.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The company had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $0.34 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Geron

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Geron to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $9.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $7.06.

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.