Geron's (GERN) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN - Free Report) in a report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $5.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company's stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on GERN. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and set a $6.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Geron from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $4.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday. They issued a buy rating and a $10.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $6.10.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $3.95. The company had a trading volume of 10,277,709 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,340,367. The firm has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a PE ratio of -11.97 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.16 and a current ratio of 3.16. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $4.30. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $3.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.35.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pathstone Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron during the third quarter valued at $26,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 101.3% during the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 13,426 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 6,757 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Geron by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC now owns 24,265 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 3,650 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.