Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Up 4.6%

Geron Co. (NASDAQ:GERN) shares rose 4.6% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $3.71 and last traded at $3.66. Approximately 2,995,182 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 11,080,196 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.50.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on GERN. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on shares of Geron in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Geron from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th.

Geron Stock Up 2.3 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $2.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.27. The firm has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.85 and a beta of 0.62. 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 (NASDAQ:GERN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $0.02 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.10) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 77.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Geron Co. will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geron

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GERN. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Geron in the third quarter worth $40,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 218,297 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $463,000 after purchasing an additional 36,358 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Geron by 19.5% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 104,023 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $221,000 after purchasing an additional 16,992 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Geron by 29.3% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 73,470 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 16,653 shares during the period. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Geron by 40.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 29,866 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 8,557 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.