Needham & Company LLC Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Stock

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) had its price target lifted by Needham & Company LLC from $6.00 to $7.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on GERN. Barclays upgraded Geron to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of Geron in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on Geron in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.25.

Geron Price Performance

Geron stock opened at $3.01 on Monday. Geron has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $5.34. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.05. Geron had a negative return on equity of 67.53% and a negative net margin of 682.48%. The business had revenue of $28.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.97 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.08) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17138.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Geron will post -0.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RTW Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Geron during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $200,268,000. Darwin Global Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Geron during the second quarter valued at $106,185,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Geron during the third quarter valued at $82,498,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Geron by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 22,565,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $102,193,000 after buying an additional 13,163,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 124.6% in the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 16,837,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $71,389,000 after buying an additional 9,342,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.