Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a research note published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $5.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on GERN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Geron from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $4.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, April 29th. They set a buy rating and a $10.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $6.10.

Geron Trading Down 0.5 %

GERN stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $3.93. 8,439,272 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,742,055. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.23 and a beta of 0.55. Geron has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $4.30. The company has a quick ratio of 3.16, a current ratio of 3.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 38,730.00% and a negative return on equity of 72.19%. The firm had revenue of $0.02 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.06 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.10) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 77.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Geron will post -0.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Geron by 43.6% in the third quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 1,902,266 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,033,000 after buying an additional 577,422 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 922.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 831,308 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,762,000 after acquiring an additional 750,001 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Geron by 3.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,405,626 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $22,060,000 after purchasing an additional 342,493 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in Geron in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd boosted its holdings in Geron by 94.2% in the third quarter. Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd now owns 753,550 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,598,000 after purchasing an additional 365,550 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.