Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Stock Price Down 5.1% - Should You Sell?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) shares dropped 5.1% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $1.40 and last traded at $1.41. Approximately 386,852 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 97% from the average daily volume of 11,727,735 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.48.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank downgraded Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. HC Wainwright restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5.06.

Geron Stock Up 9.8%

The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $1.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $999.96 million, a P/E ratio of -4.91 and a beta of 0.76.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. The firm had revenue of $39.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.07) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12927.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Geron by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,523,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $16,014,000 after purchasing an additional 73,482 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Geron by 114.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $5,902,000 after purchasing an additional 694,931 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron during the 4th quarter worth about $5,143,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,064,458 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $10,845,000 after buying an additional 247,018 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,614 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $671,000 after buying an additional 12,027 shares during the period. 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.