Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Down 4.6% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) fell 4.6% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $2.76 and last traded at $2.80. 5,319,117 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 10,578,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.93.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GERN. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays raised shares of Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.25.

Geron Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.97. The stock has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.72 and a beta of 0.53.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GERN. RTW Investments LP acquired a new stake in Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at $200,268,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Geron by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $118,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,912 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Geron by 28.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $131,486,000 after acquiring an additional 6,413,204 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Geron by 140.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at about $82,498,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.