Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Trading Down 3.1% – Should You Sell?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)’s share price fell 3.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $4.04 and last traded at $4.04. 841,310 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 92% from the average session volume of 10,335,306 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.17.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GERN. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock. HC Wainwright initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $7.05.

Geron Trading Down 1.2 %

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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.32. The stock has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.03 and a beta of 0.52.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.08) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. RTW Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at $200,268,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Geron by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Geron by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $131,486,000 after acquiring an additional 6,413,204 shares in the last quarter. Darwin Global Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at $106,185,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares in the last quarter. 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.