Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Now Covered by The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) in a research note released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued a sell rating and a $1.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company's stock.

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

Geron Price Performance

GERN traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $1.38. The company had a trading volume of 12,003,741 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,298,577. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 6.97 and a current ratio of 7.87. The company has a market capitalization of $878.95 million, a PE ratio of -6.57 and a beta of 0.64. Geron has a twelve month low of $1.17 and a twelve month high of $5.06. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $1.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.96.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 119.54% and a negative return on equity of 47.86%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.07) EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Frisch Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Geron by 84.3% during the first quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the first quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.