Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Cut to “Neutral” at Robert W. Baird

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Robert W. Baird from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $4.50 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price indicates a potential upside of 10.29% from the company’s previous close.

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

Geron Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GERN opened at $4.08 on Tuesday. Geron has a 52 week low of $1.64 and a 52 week high of $4.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.16 and a current ratio of 3.16. The company’s fifty day moving average is $2.97 and its 200-day moving average is $2.34. The company has a market capitalization of $2.23 billion, a PE ratio of -12.36 and a beta of 0.62.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GERN. RA Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in Geron by 46.5% during the 3rd quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 46,202,425 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $97,949,000 after purchasing an additional 14,657,619 shares during the last quarter. Vivo Capital LLC raised its holdings in Geron by 46.1% during the 4th quarter. Vivo Capital LLC now owns 24,143,681 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $50,943,000 after purchasing an additional 7,619,047 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Geron by 172.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,634,330 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $7,705,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300,220 shares during the last quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC raised its holdings in Geron by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC now owns 10,712,481 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $22,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,521,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC raised its holdings in Geron by 146.5% during the 3rd quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 2,226,066 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,719,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322,938 shares during the last quarter. 73.71% of the stock is 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.