Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Stock Price Down 4.5% - Time to Sell?

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) fell 4.5% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $1.37 and last traded at $1.38. 2,480,463 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 11,250,185 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.44.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GERN shares. Scotiabank lowered Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price objective 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 report on Thursday. They issued a "sell" rating and a $1.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geron currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $4.61.

Geron Price Performance

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 firm has a market cap of $840.73 million, a PE ratio of -6.29 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.95.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. Geron had a negative return on equity of 47.86% and a negative net margin of 119.54%. The company had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.88 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.07) earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. RA Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Geron by 101.2% during the first quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 60,379,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $96,003,000 after purchasing an additional 30,369,830 shares in the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP increased its holdings in Geron by 100.0% in the first quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 22,005,340 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $34,988,000 after buying an additional 11,005,340 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP bought a new stake in Geron in the fourth quarter valued at about $24,802,000. Boxer Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $21,240,000. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Geron by 64.6% during the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $41,019,000 after purchasing an additional 4,549,031 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.