Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Stock Price

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) had its price objective raised by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $6.00 to $7.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 145.61% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GERN. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays upgraded Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.25.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of Geron stock traded down $0.32 during trading on Monday, reaching $2.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,635,617 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,857,428. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $3.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.91 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Geron has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34.

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

Institutional Trading of Geron

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. RTW Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of Geron in the third quarter worth about $200,268,000. Darwin Global Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $106,185,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares during the period. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 124.6% in the second quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $71,389,000 after purchasing an additional 9,342,000 shares in the last quarter. 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.