Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) in a report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $5.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on GERN. B. Riley cut shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $3.50 to $2.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $4.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. HC Wainwright lowered shares of Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.68.

Geron Stock Up 10.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN opened at $1.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.53 and a beta of 0.53. Geron has a 1-year low of $1.46 and a 1-year high of $5.34. The company’s fifty day moving average is $2.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.89.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04). The company had revenue of $47.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.29 million. Geron had a negative net margin of 682.48% and a negative return on equity of 67.53%. Equities analysts anticipate that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Geron in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Readystate Asset Management LP bought a new position in Geron in the 3rd quarter valued at about $58,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at about $67,000. 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.