Wall Street Zen Upgrades GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) to Hold

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on GRAIL from $110.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Mizuho assumed coverage on GRAIL in a report on Friday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $58.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen increased their target price on GRAIL from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of GRAIL from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.88.

GRAIL Price Performance

GRAL opened at $61.64 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.65 billion, a PE ratio of -5.94 and a beta of 3.03. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.44. GRAIL has a 52 week low of $29.95 and a 52 week high of $118.84.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($2.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.76) by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $40.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.16 million. GRAIL had a negative return on equity of 16.42% and a negative net margin of 253.22%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that GRAIL will post -11.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert P. Ragusa sold 123,502 shares of GRAIL stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.92, for a total value of $6,165,219.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 518,582 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,887,613.44. The trade was a 19.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 45,806 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.92, for a total value of $2,286,635.52. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 260,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,012,596.48. This represents a 14.95% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 310,267 shares of company stock valued at $15,485,396 over the last ninety days. 1.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of GRAIL

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in GRAIL during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of GRAIL in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of GRAIL in the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Comerica Bank boosted its stake in shares of GRAIL by 59.2% during the 3rd quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 465 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of GRAIL by 15,733.3% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 475 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the period.

GRAIL Company Profile

GRAIL, Inc (NASDAQ: GRAL) is a biotechnology company dedicated to the early detection of cancer through a multi-cancer blood test. Leveraging advances in next-generation sequencing, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis and machine learning, GRAIL has developed the Galleri™ test, which aims to identify more than 50 types of cancer at their earliest stages. The company’s platform analyzes methylation patterns in circulating tumor DNA to pinpoint tumor presence and tissue of origin, enabling physicians to pursue timely diagnostic follow-up.

Founded in 2016 as a spin-out from Illumina, GRAIL established its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, with additional research and operations centers in the United Kingdom.