J.P. Morgan Downgrades Geron, Removes 2012 PT

J.P. Morgan downgraded Geron

from Overweight to Neutral and removed its Geron December 2012 price target of $6 in a research report published today. In the report, J.P. Morgan states, "As we first indicated after Monday's close, we feel that management's decision to halt its stem cell program and focus solely on the oncology pipeline will be good for GERN in the long run. However, in the near-to intermediate term, we are concerned that the potential lack of strong retail support (which had been driven by the company's cutting edge cell therapies) could leave shares range bound until the cancer pipeline can demonstrate proof-of-concept ('POC')." Shares of Geron closed Tuesday at $1.75, reflecting no change from Monday's market close.