Analysts Set Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Target Price at $7.05

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $7.05.

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. HC Wainwright started coverage on Geron in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank began coverage on Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com raised Geron to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Geron Stock Down 3.1 %

GERN stock opened at $4.12 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a PE ratio of -12.88 and a beta of 0.52. Geron has a 1 year low of $1.64 and a 1 year high of $5.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.32. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.10% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.08) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 17138.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Darwin Global Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Geron during the second quarter valued at approximately $106,185,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Geron by 124.6% during the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $71,389,000 after buying an additional 9,342,000 shares during the period. First Turn Management LLC acquired a new stake in Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at $14,187,000. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Geron in the first quarter valued at $8,250,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake 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 worth $6,815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,877,184 shares in the last quarter. 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.