Geron Corp. (NASDAQ: GERN) surged right out of the gate Friday morning, as traders cheered the stem cell stock's narrower-than-expected quarterly loss. After Thursday's close, Geron reported a third-quarter loss of $15.2 million, or 17 cents per share, while revenue arrived at $494,000.
Operating expenses for the quarter fell on a year-over-year basis from $18.3 million to $16.9 million, while research and development costs dwindled from $14.2 million to $13.4 million.
The bottom-line quarterly results bested analysts' consensus estimates, which called for a loss of 21 cents per share. However, revenue fell shy of Wall Street's expectations for $640,000.
GERN bolted to an early intraday peak of $6.49, up 12.5% from Thursday's close, before giving back some of its gains. The security is struggling against short-term pressure from its 10-day and 20-day moving averages, which have acted as intermittent resistance since early August.
The breakout rally was likely the result of short covering, since short interest accounts for a hefty 14.8% of GERN's float. At the stock's average daily volume, this translates to roughly 10.5 days' worth of potential buying pressure.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
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