Robert W. Baird Lowers Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) to Neutral

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Robert W. Baird from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $4.50 target price on the biopharmaceutical company's stock. Robert W. Baird's price objective suggests a potential upside of 14.50% from the company's previous close.

GERN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Geron in a report on Monday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $10.00 price target for the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geron presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $6.10.

Geron Stock Performance

Shares of GERN traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $3.93. The company had a trading volume of 15,479,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,285,316. Geron has a 52-week low of $1.64 and a 52-week high of $4.30. The company has a quick ratio of 3.16, a current ratio of 3.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.55 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $2.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.32.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Geron had a negative return on equity of 63.33% and a negative net margin of 77,691.14%. The firm had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.06 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.10) earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 77.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Geron will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Geron in the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 20.0% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 218,297 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $463,000 after buying an additional 36,358 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of Geron by 19.5% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 104,023 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $221,000 after buying an additional 16,992 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Geron by 29.3% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 73,470 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $156,000 after buying an additional 16,653 shares during the period. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 40.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 29,866 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 8,557 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.