Scotiabank Has Lowered Expectations for Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Stock Price

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) had its price objective decreased by equities researchers at Scotiabank from $6.00 to $4.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Scotiabank’s target price suggests a potential upside of 130.55% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Geron from $7.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. HC Wainwright cut Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. B. Riley cut Geron from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $3.50 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $4.00 price target (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.68.

Geron Stock Performance

GERN stock traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $1.74. 13,195,630 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,192,432. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.42 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.81. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.46 and a 12 month high of $5.34.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geron

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in Geron by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 330,911 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,171,000 after acquiring an additional 80,200 shares in the last quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter worth approximately $45,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Geron by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,267,176 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,486,000 after acquiring an additional 246,433 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP boosted its holdings in Geron by 64.6% in the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 11,587,344 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $41,019,000 after acquiring an additional 4,549,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Velan Capital Investment Management LP bought a new position in Geron in the fourth quarter worth approximately $173,000. Institutional investors 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.