Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Hits New 12-Month Low – What’s Next?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $1.28 and last traded at $1.41, with a volume of 13683362 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $1.38.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Geron Stock Up 1.1 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The company has a market cap of $907.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.45 and a beta of 0.66.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vestal Point Capital LP grew its position in Geron by 947.6% in the 4th quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $38,940,000 after buying an additional 9,950,000 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,802,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Boxer Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $21,240,000. Finally, Woodline Partners LP boosted its holdings in Geron by 64.6% in the 4th quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $41,019,000 after purchasing an additional 4,549,031 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.