Short Interest in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Drops By 21.9%

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 45,630,000 shares, a decrease of 21.9% from the February 28th total of 58,410,000 shares. Currently, 7.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 15,110,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GERN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.75.

Geron Stock Up 7.4 %

Shares of GERN stock traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $1.59. The company had a trading volume of 17,863,278 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,402,947. The company has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.97 and a beta of 0.54. 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 has a twelve month low of $1.45 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.33.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, hitting 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 business had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. boosted its holdings in Geron by 13.3% in the third quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 22,209 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,612 shares during the last quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 17,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 3,660 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its position in shares of Geron by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 42,401 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $150,000 after buying an additional 4,829 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Geron by 45.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 24,414 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 7,592 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.