Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Price Target Lowered to $4.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $5.00 to $4.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 265.63% from the company’s previous close.

GERN has been the topic of several other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Geron in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $1.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geron currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.64.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of Geron stock traded down $0.06 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $1.09. 10,009,935 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,222,904. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.36. The company has a market capitalization of $697.99 million, a P/E ratio of -8.35 and a beta of 0.57. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.04 and a 12 month high of $4.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a current ratio of 7.87.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03). The company had revenue of $47.23 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.24 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 31.37% and a negative net margin of 53.52%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GERN. Exome Asset Management LLC grew its position in Geron by 106.0% during the 1st quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC now owns 3,215,457 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,113,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,305 shares during the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 15.1% in the first quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 2,130,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,387,000 after purchasing an additional 280,000 shares during the last quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Geron in the first quarter worth approximately $599,000. Aberdeen Group plc grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 89.2% in the second quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 6,985,932 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $9,850,000 after purchasing an additional 3,293,179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 204.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 34,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 22,993 shares during 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.