Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $5.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered Geron from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $4.50 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, April 29th. They issued a buy rating and a $10.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $6.10.

Geron Price Performance

GERN opened at $3.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.23 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 3.16, a quick ratio of 3.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $3.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.38. Geron has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $4.30.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 38,730.00% and a negative return on equity of 72.19%. The business had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.06 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.10) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 77.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Geron will post -0.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC now owns 24,265 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 3,650 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division lifted its position in shares of Geron by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 132,053 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 5,079 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in shares of Geron by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 69,122 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 5,681 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of Geron by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 130,096 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $276,000 after buying an additional 5,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Geron by 101.3% during the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 13,426 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,757 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.