Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Given “Neutral” Rating at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on GERN. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley cut Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.68.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock opened at $1.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a PE ratio of -5.53 and a beta of 0.53. Geron has a 12-month low of $1.46 and a 12-month high of $5.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.62.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The business had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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, research analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in Geron by 68.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 18,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 7,429 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $178,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $67,000. First Turn Management LLC bought a new stake in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $14,187,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Geron during the third quarter valued at about $1,102,000. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.