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 traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GERN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Geron from $8.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective (down from $9.00) on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered Geron from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.06.

Geron Trading Up 1.7%

The company 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The company has a market capitalization of $770.67 million, a P/E ratio of -3.78 and a beta of 0.76.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Geron during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Frisch Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Geron by 84.3% in the first quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 19,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron in the first quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Geron in the first quarter worth about $43,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently 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.