Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Sets New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report)'s share price reached a new 52-week high on Friday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $5.00 to $6.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Geron traded as high as $5.15 and last traded at $5.00, with a volume of 29901286 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $3.89.

GERN has been the topic of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, April 29th. They set a "buy" rating and a $10.00 price objective on the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $7.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Geron from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $4.50 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $6.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Geron

In other Geron news, CEO John A. Scarlett sold 600,000 shares of Geron stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total value of $2,400,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 600,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. RA Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 46.5% in the third quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 46,202,425 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $97,949,000 after buying an additional 14,657,619 shares during the last quarter. Vivo Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 46.1% in the fourth quarter. Vivo Capital LLC now owns 24,143,681 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $50,943,000 after buying an additional 7,619,047 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the first quarter worth $24,734,000. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the first quarter worth $8,250,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 172.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,634,330 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $7,705,000 after buying an additional 2,300,220 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geron Price Performance

The stock's 50 day moving average price is $3.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.67 and a quick ratio of 3.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.86 and a beta of 0.43.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $0.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.15 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 68.16% and a negative net margin of 38,730.00%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Geron Co. will post -0.35 EPS for the current year.

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.