Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Up 6.1% – Time to Buy?

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) shares rose 6.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $1.49 and last traded at $1.49. Approximately 1,665,939 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 12,279,293 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.40.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GERN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a “sell” rating and a $1.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $4.19.

Geron Stock Up 5.4%

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 7.87 and a quick ratio of 6.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $941.08 million, a P/E ratio of -11.35 and a beta of 0.63.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.01. Geron had a negative return on equity of 31.37% and a negative net margin of 53.52%.The firm had revenue of $49.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.30 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.10) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5455.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 157.1% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 3,599,221 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,075,000 after acquiring an additional 2,199,413 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Geron by 551.4% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 78,317 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 66,294 shares in the last quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 6.2% in the second quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC now owns 3,414,377 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,814,000 after buying an additional 198,920 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Geron by 12.0% in the second quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 92,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $130,000 after buying an additional 9,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Soleus Capital Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Geron by 572.5% in the second quarter. Soleus Capital Management L.P. now owns 16,140,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $22,757,000 after buying an additional 13,740,000 shares in the last quarter. 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.