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

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.06.

GERN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target for the company.

Geron Price Performance

Geron stock opened at $4.71 on Wednesday. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The company has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.46 and a beta of 0.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $4.56 and its 200 day moving average is $4.05. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The business’s revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.09) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Geron

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GERN. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Geron by 1,200.0% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Crewe Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 870.0% in the 1st quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. American Trust bought a new position in shares of Geron during the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Geron by 32.7% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 3,805 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

About Geron

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.