Geron’s (GERN) “Neutral” Rating Reiterated at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reissued their neutral rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.68.

Geron Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.64 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings 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. Geron has a twelve month low of $1.46 and a twelve month high of $5.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GERN. RTW Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Geron during the third quarter worth $200,268,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Geron during the third quarter valued at $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Geron by 140.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $102,193,000 after purchasing an additional 13,163,889 shares during the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP lifted its position in Geron by 947.6% during the fourth quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 11,000,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $38,940,000 after purchasing an additional 9,950,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP bought a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at $24,802,000. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

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.