Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Geron (NASDAQ:GERN)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $6.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, June 10th. They set an overweight rating and a $9.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Geron from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $4.50 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Geron to a sell rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a report on Monday, April 29th. They set a buy rating and a $10.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $7.07.

Geron Price Performance

NASDAQ:GERN traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $4.70. 11,616,652 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,457,899. The company has a current ratio of 3.67, a quick ratio of 3.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $4.56 and its 200-day moving average is $3.51. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of -13.43 and a beta of 0.48. Geron has a twelve month low of $1.64 and a twelve month high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 38,730.00% and a negative return on equity of 68.16%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.09) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Geron

In related news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total value of $1,332,977.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Geron news, CEO John A. Scarlett sold 600,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $2,400,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 600,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,400,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total transaction of $1,332,977.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,562,248 shares of company stock valued at $6,808,004. 3.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Geron during the second quarter worth about $3,315,000. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Geron by 3.1% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 115,400 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 3,465 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Geron by 135.1% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 138,555 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $587,000 after purchasing an additional 79,621 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Geron by 403.0% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,201,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,093,000 after purchasing an additional 962,400 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.