Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC reduced its stake in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,077,079 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 40,257 shares during the quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC owned approximately 0.68% of Geron worth $18,510,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in Geron by 9.0% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 130,316 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its position in shares of Geron by 12.3% during the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 64,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $212,000 after purchasing an additional 7,034 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 870.0% during the first quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Affinity Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Geron in the first quarter worth $8,250,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GERN opened at $3.99 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $4.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.31. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The company has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a PE ratio of -12.47 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $28.27 million during 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 was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.08) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. HC Wainwright began coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partners began coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock 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.