Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $6.93.

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Geron from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $4.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. TD Cowen started coverage on Geron in a research note on Monday, April 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Activity at Geron

In related news, CEO John A. Scarlett sold 600,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $2,400,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 600,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total value of $1,332,977.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO John A. Scarlett sold 600,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $2,400,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 600,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Geron by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after buying an additional 1,304,713 shares during the period. Vivo Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 12.8% during the first quarter. Vivo Capital LLC now owns 27,225,292 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $89,843,000 after acquiring an additional 3,081,611 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Geron by 3.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,405,626 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $22,060,000 after purchasing an additional 342,493 shares in the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Geron in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $24,734,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Geron by 20.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,557,790 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $9,663,000 after purchasing an additional 784,822 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Trading Up 4.6 %

Shares of Geron stock opened at $4.36 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $4.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.05. The stock has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of -12.46 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.67 and a quick ratio of 3.67. Geron has a 1 year low of $1.64 and a 1 year high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 38,730.00% and a negative return on equity of 68.16%. The company had revenue of $0.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.15 million. Equities research analysts predict that Geron will post -0.35 earnings per share 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.