Geron’s (GERN) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $5.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on GERN. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright cut shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.68.

Geron Price Performance

GERN stock opened at $1.64 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a PE ratio of -5.13 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.62 and its 200-day moving average is $3.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. Geron has a 1 year low of $1.46 and a 1 year high of $5.34.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The company had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. Equities research analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Fifth Lane Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Readystate Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $58,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

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.