Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives $7.06 Consensus PT from Analysts

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $7.06.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Geron in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research report on Monday, June 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective 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, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN opened at $4.71 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a current ratio of 3.61. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.46 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.05. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.64 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). Geron had a negative net margin of 15,990.68% and a negative return on equity of 73.79%. The firm had revenue of $0.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.34 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.09) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Geron will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of Geron stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Arizona State Retirement System boosted 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 acquiring an additional 3,465 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 3,805 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 18.5% during the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 36,473 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $155,000 after purchasing an additional 5,689 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew 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 valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 12.3% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 64,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $212,000 after purchasing an additional 7,034 shares during the last quarter. 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.