Brokerages Set Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) Target Price at $4.19

Key Points

• Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from nine research firms, with varying ratings including one sell, three hold, four buy, and one strong buy.
• The average 12-month price target set by analysts for Geron is $4.1875, although Scotiabank recently reduced its price objective from $4.00 to $1.50.
• In the most recent earnings report, Geron posted a 5455.6% increase in revenue compared to the previous year, totaling $49.04 million, while the company's earnings per share exceeded estimates by $0.01.

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $4.1875.

GERN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Geron in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target for the company.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Geron by 157.1% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 3,599,221 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,075,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199,413 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of Geron by 551.4% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 78,317 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 66,294 shares during the period. Exome Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC now owns 3,414,377 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $4,814,000 after acquiring an additional 198,920 shares during the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Geron by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 92,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $130,000 after acquiring an additional 9,849 shares during the period. Finally, Soleus Capital Management L.P. grew its position in Geron by 572.5% in the 2nd quarter. Soleus Capital Management L.P. now owns 16,140,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $22,757,000 after acquiring an additional 13,740,000 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN traded down $0.02 on Wednesday, reaching $1.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,222,808 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,280,767. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.49. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.09 and a 52-week high of $4.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 6.79 and a current ratio of 7.87. The company has a market cap of $880.47 million, a P/E ratio of -10.62 and a beta of 0.63.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $49.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.30 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 53.52% and a negative return on equity of 31.37%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5455.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.10) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.25 EPS 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.