Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $1.20, but opened at $1.27. Geron shares last traded at $1.24, with a volume of 799,911 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GERN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank lowered Geron from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $4.00 to $1.50 in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price target (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5.06.

Geron Stock Up 1.7%

The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.66. The company has a market capitalization of $770.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.78 and a beta of 0.76.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $39.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.88 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12927.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.07) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nvest Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $693,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Geron by 1.7% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 114.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,299,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,902,000 after acquiring an additional 694,931 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Geron in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,143,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 189,614 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $671,000 after acquiring an additional 12,027 shares in the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.