Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has been given an average rating of “Buy” by the eleven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.25.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective for the company.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Geron by 135.1% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 138,555 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $587,000 after purchasing an additional 79,621 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,315,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of Geron by 29.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 69,405 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 15,829 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Geron by 55.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 153,678 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 54,609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. boosted its position in Geron by 18.5% during the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 36,473 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $155,000 after purchasing an additional 5,689 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GERN opened at $2.89 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.03 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.05. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The firm had revenue of $28.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. Geron’s revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.