A new trading data show Geron Corp. (GERN) is showing positive returns.

Geron Corp. (NASDAQ: GERN) stock jumped 5.35% on Friday to $1.97 against a previous-day closing price of $1.87. With 5.25 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 6.05 million shares. During the session, the Biotechnology company that operates in wider Healthcare sector, reached to the highest price of $1.9899 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $1.8600. The 52-week range on GERN shows that it touched its highest point at $3.84 and its lowest point at $1.68 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $4.83. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.79.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of GERN was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 13.22%, but this was up by 11.30% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -25.10% while six-month performance fell -36.04%. The stock lost -12.05% in the past year, while it has lost -18.60% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for GERN yields -0.34 with Next year EPS estimates of -0.36. For the next quarter, that number is -0.10. This implies an EPS growth rate of 7.21% for this year and -4.37% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 5.00% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -16.28%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 543.06 million GERN shares are outstanding with a float of 456.15 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 45.12 million, which was 8.31% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Dr. John A. Scarlett M.D. as the firm’s Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, Dr. Andrew J. Grethlein serves as its Executive VP & COO.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 64.60% of GERN’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 33.97% of GERN, in contrast to 21.96% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 1.96%. As the largest shareholder in GERN with 8.83% of the stake, RA Capital Management LP holds 46,202,425 shares worth 46,202,425. A second-largest stockholder of GERN, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 33,101,014 shares, controlling over 6.33% of the firm’s shares. Deep Track Capital LP is the third largest shareholder in GERN, holding 25,700,000 shares or 4.91% stake. With a 3.15% stake in GERN, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 16,485,304 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 3.11% of GERN stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 16,290,065 shares valued at 30.95 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF holds 2.21% of the stake in GERN, owning 11,541,462 shares worth 21.93 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for GERN since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With GERN analysts setting a high price target of $6.00 and a low target of $4.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $4.83. Based on these targets, GERN could surge 204.57% to reach the target high and rise by 103.05% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 145.18% from current levels.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded GERN stock several times over the past three months with 4 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 22,767 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 19 while that of sell transactions has risen to 8 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,050,012 while 2,194,719 shares were sold.