State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Decreases Holdings in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System cut its holdings in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN – Get Rating) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 127,922 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 10,500 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System’s holdings in Geron were worth $310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Geron by 8.4% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 571,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $777,000 after acquiring an additional 44,400 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Geron by 31.0% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 192,225 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 45,452 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Geron by 1.0% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,161,223 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,580,000 after acquiring an additional 11,874 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 24.9% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 143,848 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $196,000 after acquiring an additional 28,689 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Geron by 12.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,336,930 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $23,579,000 after acquiring an additional 1,910,182 shares in the last quarter. 49.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Geron news, Director V Bryan Lawlis sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Geron Price Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $3.08 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $2.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.06 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 8.81, a current ratio of 8.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Geron Co. has a 52 week low of $1.18 and a 52 week high of $3.84.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 11th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $0.02 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.14 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 91.38% and a negative net margin of 30,349.19%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GERN. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, March 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, April 21st. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, March 17th. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $3.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.00.

Geron Profile

(Get Rating)

Geron Corp. operates as a biotechnology company. It develops a telomerase inhibitor, Imetelstat, in hematologic myeloid malignancies. The firm develops therapeutic products for oncology. The company was founded by Michael D. West on November 28, 1990 and is headquartered in Foster City, CA.