China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 49,394 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 367.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 62,820 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 49,394 shares during the quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Geron were worth $133,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GERN. RA Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Geron by 46.5% during the third quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 46,202,425 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $97,949,000 after buying an additional 14,657,619 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Geron by 3,730.2% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,974,066 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $23,814,000 after buying an additional 10,687,554 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth $31,491,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Geron by 4,315.3% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,142,625 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $17,669,000 after buying an additional 7,958,208 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Geron by 29.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,557,601 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $55,460,000 after buying an additional 5,845,412 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, March 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th.

Geron Stock Up 3.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ GERN opened at $3.32 on Friday. Geron Co. has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $3.73. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.16 and a quick ratio of 3.16.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 77,691.14% and a negative return on equity of 63.33%. The firm had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.06 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.10) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 77.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.