Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Trading Up 4.3% – What’s Next?

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) traded up 4.3% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $1.84 and last traded at $1.83. 9,915,648 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the average session volume of 10,848,446 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.75.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Geron Trading Up 4.3 %

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.50. The stock has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.73 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. RTW Investments LP acquired a new position in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at about $200,268,000. Nvest Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $693,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% during the third 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 during the period. Barclays PLC raised 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Geron in the third quarter worth approximately $1,102,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.