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

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5.75.

GERN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley downgraded Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective 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. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 330,911 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after buying an additional 80,200 shares during the last quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,267,176 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,486,000 after buying an additional 246,433 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in Geron by 64.6% in the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $41,019,000 after buying an additional 4,549,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Velan Capital Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $173,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $1.64 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.13 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $2.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.56. Geron has a 1-year low of $1.46 and a 1-year high of $5.34.

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