Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Trading Up 8.2% – What’s Next?

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) shares traded up 8.2% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $1.42 and last traded at $1.3850. 3,389,359 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 10,838,833 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GERN shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Geron from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Geron in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Geron in a research note on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $2.75.

Geron Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 5.96, a quick ratio of 4.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market cap of $884.11 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.54 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $1.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.33.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.03). Geron had a negative net margin of 43.61% and a negative return on equity of 29.63%. The business had revenue of $47.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.24 million. On average, analysts anticipate that Geron Corporation will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. RA Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Geron by 101.2% in the first quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 60,379,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $96,003,000 after purchasing an additional 30,369,830 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,146,851 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $54,293,000 after acquiring an additional 608,029 shares during the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 23,775,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $33,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,769,660 shares during the last quarter. Soleus Capital Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Geron by 572.5% in the 2nd quarter. Soleus Capital Management L.P. now owns 16,140,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $22,757,000 after acquiring an additional 13,740,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Geron by 4.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,152,038 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $19,956,000 after purchasing an additional 584,444 shares during the period. 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.