Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.07.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, August 9th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Geron to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Faye Feller sold 287,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.63, for a total transaction of $1,332,977.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,562,248 shares of company stock worth $6,808,004 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of Geron by 1,200.0% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 6,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC boosted its position in Geron by 870.0% during the first quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 9,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Geron during the first quarter valued at about $34,000. American Trust bought a new stake in Geron during the first quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Geron by 32.7% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,438 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Stock Up 4.2 %

Shares of GERN opened at $4.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.57 and a beta of 0.48. Geron has a 1 year low of $1.64 and a 1 year high of $5.34. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.67 and a quick ratio of 3.67.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.10). Geron had a negative return on equity of 68.16% and a negative net margin of 38,730.00%. The company had revenue of $0.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.34 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. Geron’s quarterly revenue was up 2941.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Geron will post -0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.