Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Reaches New 12-Month Low - What's Next?

Key Points

• Geron Corporation's stock hit a new 12-month low of $1.13 during trading, closing at $1.15 after a significant volume of over 22.6 million shares.
• Analysts have set a consensus target price of $4.61 for Geron, with ratings ranging from sell to strong buy, reflecting varied outlooks on the company's performance.
• Institutional investors have increased their stakes in Geron significantly, with RA Capital Management raising its holdings by 101.2% recently, indicating strong confidence despite the stock's decline.

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $1.13 and last traded at $1.15, with a volume of 22652348 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $1.26.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GERN has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank lowered Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Geron in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price target on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $4.61.

Geron Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $748.38 million, a P/E ratio of -5.59 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a quick ratio of 6.97, a current ratio of 7.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $1.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.74.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 47.86% and a negative net margin of 119.54%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.07) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $247,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Geron by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 36,041 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 8,967 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Geron by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,614 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $671,000 after acquiring an additional 12,027 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $355,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Geron by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 345,836 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $1,224,000 after acquiring an additional 61,778 shares during the period. 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.