Vestal Point Capital LP Purchases New Stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Vestal Point Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,050,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock, valued at approximately $4,767,000. Vestal Point Capital LP owned about 0.17% of Geron as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Darwin Global Management Ltd. bought a new position in Geron during the second quarter worth $106,185,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Geron during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,315,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of 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 worth $6,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,877,184 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at about $539,000. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 124.6% during the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $71,389,000 after purchasing an additional 9,342,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GERN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, September 9th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 price target for the company. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Geron to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $7.05.

Geron Stock Down 1.2 %

GERN traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $4.12. 3,512,723 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,347,535. The company has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.03 and a beta of 0.52. Geron Co. has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The company's fifty day moving average price is $4.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Geron's revenue was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.08) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

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.