Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) saw strong trading volume on Tuesday . 18,369,678 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 62% from the previous session’s volume of 11,311,499 shares.The stock last traded at $1.55 and had previously closed at $1.59.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. B. Riley downgraded Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Geron Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $2.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.32. The company has a market cap of $964.91 million, a P/E ratio of -4.73 and a beta of 0.54.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The business had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. RTW Investments LP acquired a new stake in Geron in the third quarter worth about $200,268,000. Nvest Financial LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $693,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Geron by 140.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,523,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $16,014,000 after purchasing an additional 73,482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 114.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,902,000 after purchasing an additional 694,931 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.