Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $5.75.

GERN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. B. Riley downgraded Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $118,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,912 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Geron by 28.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $131,486,000 after purchasing an additional 6,413,204 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Geron by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $95,769,000 after buying an additional 4,516,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,510,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $47,826,000 after buying an additional 847,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Geron by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,141,514 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $46,531,000 after buying an additional 73,515 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.38 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. Geron has a one year low of $1.33 and a one year high of $5.34. The company has a market capitalization of $878.93 million, a PE ratio of -4.31 and a beta of 0.54.

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

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.