Invesco Ltd. Sells 385,925 Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Invesco Ltd. reduced its position in shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) by 15.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,077,602 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 385,925 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned 0.34% of Geron worth $7,355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GERN. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its holdings in Geron by 82.6% in the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 7,446,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,360,000 after buying an additional 3,369,196 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Geron by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $118,727,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088,912 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Geron by 10,151.4% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,029,553 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,674,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019,510 shares during the period. Exome Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter worth $4,109,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Geron by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $47,826,000 after purchasing an additional 847,710 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Geron Price Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $1.42 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $1.66 and a 200 day moving average of $2.95. Geron Co. has a one year low of $1.17 and a one year high of $5.34. The company has a market capitalization of $904.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.44 and a beta of 0.66.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

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.