Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has earned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has 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 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $7.06.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GERN. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Geron by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,869,287 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $98,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,304,713 shares in the last quarter. Darwin Global Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 buying an additional 9,342,000 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,842,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,108,000 after buying an additional 208,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter worth about $8,250,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN opened at $4.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a PE ratio of -13.14 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 3.60. Geron has a one year low of $1.64 and a one year high of $5.34. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $4.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.08.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10). Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. The business had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.34 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Geron will post -0.34 earnings per share 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.