Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Coverage Initiated at The Goldman Sachs Group

Equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company's stock. The Goldman Sachs Group's price objective would suggest a potential downside of 30.56% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on GERN. HC Wainwright restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $5.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Scotiabank cut Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $4.61.

Geron Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GERN opened at $1.44 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $917.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.86 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a 50-day moving average of $1.44 and a 200-day moving average of $1.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 7.87 and a quick ratio of 6.97. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.17 and a fifty-two week high of $5.06.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 47.86% and a negative net margin of 119.54%. Geron's revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.07) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,523,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $16,014,000 after acquiring an additional 73,482 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,143,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 8.8% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,064,458 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $10,845,000 after acquiring an additional 247,018 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,614 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $671,000 after acquiring an additional 12,027 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter worth approximately $247,000. 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.

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