Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives $7.07 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.07.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GERN. StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock opened at $4.51 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a PE ratio of -12.89 and a beta of 0.48. Geron has a 12-month low of $1.64 and a 12-month high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 3.67, a quick ratio of 3.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.75.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 68.16% and a negative net margin of 38,730.00%. The company’s revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.09) EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Geron news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total value of $1,332,977.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,562,248 shares of company stock worth $6,808,004. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of Geron by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 210,890 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $445,000 after purchasing an additional 25,959 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Geron by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,237,234 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,611,000 after purchasing an additional 204,765 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Geron by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 61,909 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $131,000 after purchasing an additional 13,596 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Geron by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,842,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,108,000 after acquiring an additional 208,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vivo Capital LLC grew its position in Geron by 46.1% in the fourth quarter. Vivo Capital LLC now owns 24,143,681 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $50,943,000 after acquiring an additional 7,619,047 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.