Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Robert W. Baird

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) was downgraded by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $4.50 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.29% from the company’s previous close.

GERN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6.10.

Geron Stock Up 3.8 %

GERN stock opened at $4.08 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.16, a current ratio of 3.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.64 and a fifty-two week high of $4.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.34. The stock has a market cap of $2.23 billion, a PE ratio of -12.36 and a beta of 0.62.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by $0.01. Geron had a negative net margin of 77,691.14% and a negative return on equity of 63.33%. The business had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.06 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.10) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 77.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Geron will post -0.34 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Geron by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Vishria Bird Financial Group LLC now owns 24,265 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 3,650 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 132,053 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 5,079 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 9.0% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 69,122 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 5,681 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 4.7% in the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 130,096 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $276,000 after buying an additional 5,880 shares during the period. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 101.3% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 13,426 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 6,757 shares during the period. 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.