Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Up 9% – Still a Buy?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)’s stock price was up 9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $1.74 and last traded at $1.76. Approximately 12,231,466 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 14% from the average daily volume of 14,192,432 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.61.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GERN has been the subject of several research reports. B. Riley downgraded Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Geron from $7.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.68.

Geron Trading Up 8.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $3.00 and a 200 day moving average of $3.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.44 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. RTW Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Geron in the third quarter valued at approximately $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Geron during the 3rd quarter worth about $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,193,000 after purchasing an additional 13,163,889 shares during the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 947.6% in the fourth quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $38,940,000 after purchasing an additional 9,950,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP acquired a new position in Geron during the 4th quarter worth $24,802,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.