Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ Invests $893,000 in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ acquired a new stake in Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 262,649 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $893,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GERN. RTW Investments LP acquired a new position in Geron during the third quarter valued at approximately $200,268,000. Nvest Financial LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at $693,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Geron by 114.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the 3rd quarter worth $1,102,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Geron Trading Up 6.1 %

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.74 on Tuesday. Geron Co. has a 52-week low of $1.46 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, a PE ratio of -5.44 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $2.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.54.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million for 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%. On average, analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note 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 report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.75.

Geron 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.