Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $5.06.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GERN. Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 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. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Frisch Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 84.3% during the first quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 8,700 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN stock opened at $1.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $987.23 million, a P/E ratio of -7.38 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.21. The company has a current ratio of 7.87, a quick ratio of 6.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.17 and a 12 month high of $5.06.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. Geron had a negative return on equity of 47.86% and a negative net margin of 119.54%. The company had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.07) EPS. Geron’s revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share 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.