Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Up 9% - Time to Buy?

Shares of Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) rose 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 mid-day 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 a number of research reports. HC Wainwright cut shares of Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday. Finally, B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $5.68.

Geron Stock Down 2.8 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of -5.34 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $2.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.76.

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Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. RTW Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $102,193,000 after acquiring an additional 13,163,889 shares during the period. Vestal Point Capital LP increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 9,950,000 shares during the period. Finally, Braidwell LP acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter valued at $24,802,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.