Geron's (GERN) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $5.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target points to a potential upside of 212.50% from the company's previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GERN. 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 research note on Thursday, February 27th. B. Riley downgraded shares of Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 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 note on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, HC Wainwright downgraded Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5.68.

Remove Ads

Geron Stock Performance

NASDAQ GERN opened at $1.60 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.00 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day moving average of $2.73 and a 200-day moving average of $3.65. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.46 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04). The company had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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, analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RTW Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the third quarter valued at about $200,268,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,538,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $118,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,912 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Geron by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,961,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $131,486,000 after buying an additional 6,413,204 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Geron by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,082,461 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $95,769,000 after acquiring an additional 4,516,615 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Geron during the 3rd quarter worth $82,498,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.