Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Trading Up 16.4% – What’s Next?

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN)’s stock price traded up 16.4% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $1.57 and last traded at $1.5601. 5,147,542 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 14,925,009 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.34.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Geron from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $4.00.

Geron Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.41 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a current ratio of 6.78, a quick ratio of 4.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $1.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.46.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.01). Geron had a negative net margin of 35.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.31%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Geron Corporation will post -0.02 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GERN. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Geron by 20.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,519 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 6,713 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in Geron by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 41,891 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 7,840 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in Geron by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 392,534 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $627,000 after purchasing an additional 8,123 shares during the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Geron by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 92,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 9,849 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LCM Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Geron by 80.6% in the fourth quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc now owns 22,400 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

Geron Company Profile

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing novel treatments that target telomerase, an enzyme critical to cancer cell immortality. The company’s research is focused on hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, with a pipeline designed to address diseases that have historically had limited therapeutic options.

The lead product candidate, imetelstat, is a first-in-class telomerase inhibitor currently in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials for myelofibrosis and myelodysplastic syndromes.