Acuta Capital Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Acuta Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 154,900 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Geron by 519.0% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 205,332 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $932,000 after buying an additional 172,160 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 210.9% in the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 395,071 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,794,000 after acquiring an additional 268,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Geron by 2.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,450,382 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $20,205,000 after acquiring an additional 111,361 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the third quarter worth $1,102,000. Finally, First Turn Management LLC bought a new position in Geron during the third quarter worth $14,187,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geron Stock Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ GERN opened at $4.17 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. Geron Co. has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The firm has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a PE ratio of -13.03 and a beta of 0.52.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.97 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.08) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GERN shares. Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. HC Wainwright began coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.05.

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.