Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $2.75.

GERN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Geron from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Friday, October 31st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Frisch Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Geron by 84.3% during the first quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the last quarter. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the second quarter worth $35,000. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 73.6% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 26,371 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 11,182 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Geron by 73.8% in the 2nd quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 26,074 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 11,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geron Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ GERN opened at $1.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 4.87 and a current ratio of 5.96. Geron has a 1 year low of $1.04 and a 1 year high of $4.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $1.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.32. The firm has a market cap of $855.39 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.17 and a beta of 0.57.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03). Geron had a negative return on equity of 29.63% and a negative net margin of 43.61%.The firm had revenue of $47.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.24 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.