Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Earns “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $5.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 199.40% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price 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. B. Riley cut 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 report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright downgraded Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.68.

Geron Stock Down 5.6 %

GERN stock opened at $1.67 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.61. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.46 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The company has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.22 and a beta of 0.53.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The company had revenue of $47.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.29 million. On average, research analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Geron by 68.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 18,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 7,429 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter worth $178,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Geron in the third quarter worth $67,000. First Turn Management LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $14,187,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron during the third quarter valued at about $1,102,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

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.