Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Trading Down 8.5% - What's Next?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) shares dropped 8.5% on Monday . The company traded as low as $2.85 and last traded at $2.90. Approximately 3,819,957 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 11,759,547 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.17.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GERN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a "sector outperform" rating and a $6.00 price target on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Geron to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $9.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $7.25.

Geron Stock Down 6.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.31 and a beta of 0.55. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $3.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm had revenue of $28.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. The business's revenue was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GERN. RTW Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter worth about $200,268,000. 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 valued at $131,486,000 after purchasing an additional 6,413,204 shares during the last quarter. Darwin Global Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Geron during the second quarter valued at about $106,185,000. 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 valued at $102,193,000 after purchasing an additional 13,163,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the third quarter valued at about $82,498,000. 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.