Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Rating Reiterated by Needham & Company LLC

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $6.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 27.66% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on GERN. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday. Barclays assumed coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird downgraded Geron from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $4.50 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.07.

Geron Stock Performance

Geron stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $4.70. 11,616,652 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,457,899. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.67 and a current ratio of 3.67. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $3.51. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of -13.43 and a beta of 0.48. Geron has a twelve month low of $1.64 and a twelve month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by $0.01. 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 68.16% and a negative net margin of 38,730.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.09) EPS. Equities analysts predict that Geron will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of Geron 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of Geron 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of Geron stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were 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. Insiders sold a total of 1,562,248 shares of company stock valued at $6,808,004 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Geron during the first quarter valued at about $333,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Geron by 999.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,877,184 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Geron by 37.9% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 714,012 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after acquiring an additional 196,328 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Geron during the first quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its position in Geron by 12.3% during the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 64,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $212,000 after acquiring an additional 7,034 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Company Profile

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.