Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5.38.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley cut Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of GERN stock opened at $1.41 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $1.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.87. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.17 and a 52-week high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $898.05 million, a P/E ratio of -4.41 and a beta of 0.66.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nvest Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter worth $693,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Geron by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,523,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $16,014,000 after acquiring an additional 73,482 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Geron by 114.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,143,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Geron by 10,151.4% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,029,553 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,674,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019,510 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

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.