Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Short Interest Down 16.3% in February

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 58,410,000 shares, a decline of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 69,770,000 shares. Currently, 10.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 14,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. B. Riley cut Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Geron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. RTW Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Geron in the third quarter worth approximately $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares during the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP raised its position in shares of Geron by 947.6% during the 4th quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $38,940,000 after buying an additional 9,950,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth $24,802,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geron Price Performance

NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $1.75. 3,526,122 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,941,900. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $2.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $3.54. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a PE ratio of -5.45 and a beta of 0.53. Geron has a 12-month low of $1.46 and a 12-month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.29 million. On average, analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 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.