Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Shares Up 7.1% – Here’s Why

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN)’s stock price traded up 7.1% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $1.5860 and last traded at $1.5850. Approximately 2,632,925 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 14,334,827 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.48.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Geron from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.00.

Geron Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a PE ratio of -14.52 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 6.91 and a quick ratio of 5.16.

Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.01). Geron had a negative net margin of 34.17% and a negative return on equity of 24.48%. The company had revenue of $57.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.30 million. Equities research analysts expect that Geron Corporation will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GERN. Nantahala Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geron in the second quarter valued at $15,648,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new position in Geron during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,982,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Geron by 144.1% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,799,521 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,681,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062,355 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Geron by 826.7% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,218,196 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,304,000 after purchasing an additional 1,978,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Geron by 68.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,556,278 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,789,000 after buying an additional 1,858,268 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.71% of the company’s stock.

About Geron

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.