Man Group plc Takes $892,000 Position in Geron Corporation $GERN

Man Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 696,669 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $892,000. Man Group plc owned 0.11% of Geron as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in Geron by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 392,534 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 8,123 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in Geron by 8.3% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,372,016 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,182,000 after purchasing an additional 104,840 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 8.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 550,871 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $775,000 after buying an additional 42,345 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 873,893 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,232,000 after acquiring an additional 34,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in Geron by 72.3% during the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 79,494 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 33,352 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Geron from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $4.00.

Geron Trading Down 5.0%

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.51 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $970.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.73 and a beta of 0.61. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $1.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.47. The company has a quick ratio of 5.16, a current ratio of 6.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Geron Corporation has a twelve month low of $1.04 and a twelve month high of $2.01.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $57.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.30 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 24.48% and a negative net margin of 34.17%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Geron Corporation will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Geron Company Profile

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing novel treatments that target telomerase, an enzyme critical to cancer cell immortality. The company’s research is focused on hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, with a pipeline designed to address diseases that have historically had limited therapeutic options.

The lead product candidate, imetelstat, is a first-in-class telomerase inhibitor currently in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials for myelofibrosis and myelodysplastic syndromes.