Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Stock Rating Lowered by Robert W. Baird

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) was downgraded by analysts at Robert W. Baird from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $4.50 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price suggests a potential upside of 8.70% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $6.10.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of Geron stock opened at $4.14 on Tuesday. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.64 and a fifty-two week high of $4.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.16 and a quick ratio of 3.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.55 and a beta of 0.61. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $2.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.31.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.06 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 77,691.14% and a negative return on equity of 63.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 77.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.10) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Geron will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. RA Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in 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 valued at $97,949,000 after purchasing an additional 14,657,619 shares in the last quarter. Vivo Capital LLC increased its stake in Geron by 12.8% in the first quarter. Vivo Capital LLC now owns 27,225,292 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $89,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,081,611 shares in the last quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC increased its stake in Geron by 16.6% in the third quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC now owns 10,712,481 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $22,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,521,191 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Geron by 3.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,405,626 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $22,060,000 after purchasing an additional 342,493 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Geron by 20.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,557,790 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $9,663,000 after purchasing an additional 784,822 shares in the last quarter. 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.