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

Acuta Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 154,900 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 4.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after buying an additional 1,304,713 shares during the period. Darwin Global Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at about $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 124.6% in the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $71,389,000 after acquiring an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Geron by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,450,382 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $20,205,000 after acquiring an additional 111,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Turn Management LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the third quarter valued at approximately $14,187,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN opened at $4.17 on Thursday. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.52 billion, a PE ratio of -13.03 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.32.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on GERN. HC Wainwright began coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Leerink Partners initiated 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. Leerink Partnrs raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on Geron in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Geron presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.05.

Geron Company 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.