Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Gap Down - Should You Sell?

Shares of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $1.38, but opened at $1.33. Geron shares last traded at $1.37, with a volume of 406,025 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Geron in a research report on Thursday. They set a "sell" rating and a $1.00 target price for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $4.61.

Geron Trading Up 1.5%

The company's 50 day simple moving average is $1.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.93. The firm has a market cap of $853.47 million, a P/E ratio of -6.38 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.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.07) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Frisch Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Geron by 84.3% in the 1st quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter worth $39,000. Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Geron during the 1st quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter worth $45,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.