Brokerages Set Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) PT at $7.06

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has earned an average rating of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $7.06.

GERN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Barclays began coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th.

Geron Stock Up 7.5 %

Shares of GERN opened at $4.60 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $4.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.14 and a beta of 0.50. Geron has a 52 week low of $1.64 and a 52 week high of $5.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a current ratio of 3.61.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 73.79% and a negative net margin of 15,990.68%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.09) EPS. On average, analysts predict that Geron will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Geron

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Geron by 114.0% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 74,947 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 39,919 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in Geron in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $539,000. Blue Owl Capital Holdings LP acquired a new position in Geron during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $101,000. Lion Point Capital LP grew its stake in shares of Geron by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Lion Point Capital LP now owns 630,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,671,000 after acquiring an additional 30,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 152.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 915,949 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,884,000 after purchasing an additional 553,081 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

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.