Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

by · The Markets Daily

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN – Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 58,410,000 shares, a decline of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 69,770,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 14,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.1 days. Currently, 10.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,000. 111 Capital bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Finally, Fifth Lane Capital LP bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.75.

View Our Latest Analysis on Geron

Geron Price Performance

Geron stock traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $1.70. 6,277,789 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,889,081. The company has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.31 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Geron has a twelve month low of $1.46 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $2.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.52.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. Equities analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Geron

(Get Free Report)

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.

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