Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Given New $4.00 Price Target at Needham & Company LLC

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) had its price objective cut by Needham & Company LLC from $5.00 to $4.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Geron in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a “sell” rating and a $1.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.64.

Geron Trading Down 5.2%

Shares of Geron stock opened at $1.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $695.44 million, a P/E ratio of -8.38 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1.36. Geron has a 1-year low of $1.04 and a 1-year high of $4.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 7.87 and a quick ratio of 6.79.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.03). The business had revenue of $47.23 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.24 million. Geron had a negative return on equity of 31.37% and a negative net margin of 53.52%. Analysts predict that Geron will post -0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in Geron by 14.5% during the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 93,971 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $129,000 after purchasing an additional 11,887 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Geron during the third quarter worth $171,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the third quarter worth $155,000. Forefront Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Geron during the third quarter worth $72,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Geron by 15.6% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 329,051 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 44,327 shares during the period. 73.71% of the stock is currently 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.