Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Down 5.1% - Time to Sell?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report)'s share price was down 5.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $1.40 and last traded at $1.41. Approximately 386,852 shares were traded during 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 equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GERN shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank cut Geron from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, B. Riley lowered Geron from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geron has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $5.06.

Geron Trading Up 4.4%

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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.43. The company has a market capitalization of $984.04 million, a P/E ratio of -4.83 and a beta of 0.76.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. Geron's quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.07) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Geron

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GERN. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Geron by 114.9% during 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. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Geron by 45.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 24,414 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 7,592 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Geron by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 128,176 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $454,000 after purchasing an additional 12,239 shares during the period. Lazari Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Geron by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Lazari Capital Management Inc. now owns 76,424 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $271,000 after purchasing an additional 8,000 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc increased its position in shares of Geron by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,847,285 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $6,539,000 after purchasing an additional 360,027 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.