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

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $7.25.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays raised Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price on the stock.

Geron Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of GERN opened at $3.01 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $3.59 and its 200-day moving average is $4.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.82 billion, a PE ratio of -9.41 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The company had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.08) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. RTW Investments LP purchased a new position in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at about $200,268,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in Geron by 28.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $131,486,000 after buying an additional 6,413,204 shares during the period. Darwin Global Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Geron in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $106,185,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Geron by 140.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $82,498,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.