Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) Rating Increased to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) to a sell rating in a report published on Monday morning.

GERN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $7.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Geron from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $4.50 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Geron in a research note on Monday, June 10th. They set an overweight rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and set a $6.00 target price on shares of Geron in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Geron from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $7.07.

Geron Stock Up 0.9 %

GERN opened at $4.60 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.67 and a current ratio of 3.67. Geron has a fifty-two week low of $1.64 and a fifty-two week high of $5.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $4.54 and its 200 day moving average is $3.49. The stock has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.14 and a beta of 0.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Geron news, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total value of $3,075,026.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO John A. Scarlett sold 600,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total value of $2,400,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 600,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,400,000. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Andrew J. Grethlein sold 674,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.56, for a total transaction of $3,075,026.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,562,248 shares of company stock worth $6,808,004 in the last 90 days. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Geron

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GERN. Vivo Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Geron by 46.1% in the 4th quarter. Vivo Capital LLC now owns 24,143,681 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $50,943,000 after buying an additional 7,619,047 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Geron in the 1st quarter worth about $24,734,000. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC bought a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter valued at about $8,250,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Geron by 999.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,064,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,877,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altitude Crest Partners Inc. bought a new position in Geron during the 1st quarter valued at about $5,054,000. 73.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geron Company Profile

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.