Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has been given an average rating of “Buy” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com 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 objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $7.06.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GERN. StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Leerink Partners began coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 23.8% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 92,784 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $421,000 after purchasing an additional 17,837 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 93.3% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 159,754 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $725,000 after purchasing an additional 77,094 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 32.6% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 22,630 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 5,559 shares during the last quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the second quarter valued at approximately $83,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the second quarter valued at approximately $539,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN stock opened at $4.33 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a PE ratio of -12.37 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.21. The company has a quick ratio of 3.60, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). The business 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 revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Geron will post -0.34 EPS for the current 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.