Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. Geron had a negative net margin of 38,730.00% and a negative return on equity of 68.16%. The company had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.34 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.09) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $4.70. 11,616,652 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,457,899. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.67 and a quick ratio of 3.67. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $4.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.51. Geron has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.43 and a beta of 0.48.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GERN shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, April 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price for the company. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Geron news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of Geron stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total transaction of $1,332,977.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total transaction of $1,332,977.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,562,248 shares of company stock valued at $6,808,004 over the last ninety days. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.