Benzinga's Microcap Movers for Thursday August 30, 2012

Below are highlights from Benzinga's daily coverage of small cap and microcap securities making big moves:

Shares of UQM Technologies

, the Longmont, CO developer and manufacturer of power-dense, high-efficiency electric motors, generators and power electronic controllers for the automotive, commercial truck and bus and military markets, rose 16.67% Thursday on twice the average volume. UQM Technologies President and Chief Executive Officer, Eric R. Ridenour, will present and serve as a panelist on the “Next Generation Energy Storage and Fuels on the Horizon” panel at the Modern Energy Forum at 9:00 a.m. MDT on September 6, 2012. UQM Technologies closed at $1.05 on Thursday.

Shares of Geron Corporation

, the Menlo Park, CA biopharmaceutical company, rose 9.13% Thursday on 2.5 times average volume. Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Geron with a Buy rating and a price target of $4 a share. They noted, "We anticipate positive proof-of-concept data for Geron's two oncology assets to reignite investor interest. In our opinion, six Phase 2 data readouts over the next six to nine months should validate Imetelstat and GRN1005 as compelling, differentiated oncology clinical candidates with large commercial opportunities. We believe positive news flow will yield significant stock price appreciation for GERN." Geron Corporation closed at $2.63 on Thursday.

Neuralstem

, the Rockville, MD biopharmaceutical company, rose 9.60% Thursday on 3 times average volume. Neuralstem had announced Monday the completion of the Phase I trial of its NSI-566 spinal cord neural stem cells for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), with the eighteenth patient treated. This patient, the third to return to the trial for an additional set of injections, is also the last in the Phase I portion of the trial as it is currently designed, which is scheduled to conclude six months after this final surgery. Neuralstem closed at $0.55 on Thursday.