GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $105.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Friday, July 17th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.11.

GRAIL Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of GRAL stock opened at $75.89 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.03. The company has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.78 and a beta of 3.25. GRAIL has a 12-month low of $36.98 and a 12-month high of $118.84.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.66) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $44.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.39 million. GRAIL had a negative return on equity of 15.88% and a negative net margin of 236.95%. On average, equities analysts forecast that GRAIL will post -10.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Joshua J. Ofman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.02, for a total value of $425,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 397,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,775,980.42. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.01, for a total value of $671,579.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 253,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,514,585.83. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 1.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On GRAIL

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of GRAIL by 29.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 914,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,241,000 after purchasing an additional 205,611 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in GRAIL by 255.6% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 28,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,939,000 after purchasing an additional 20,416 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in GRAIL by 154,361.0% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 91,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,531,000 after buying an additional 91,073 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its position in GRAIL by 141.2% during the fourth quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,949,000 after buying an additional 13,334 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in GRAIL by 20.5% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,577,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $244,207,000 after buying an additional 608,539 shares during the last quarter.

GRAIL Company Profile

GRAIL, Inc is a healthcare company focused on developing blood-based tests for the early detection of cancer. Its technology uses genomic and epigenomic signals, including patterns of DNA methylation, to identify signals associated with multiple cancer types from a single blood sample.

The company’s primary product is Galleri, a prescription blood test designed to screen for signals of more than 50 types of cancer, including cancers that currently lack recommended screening methods. Galleri is intended to complement, not replace, guideline-recommended cancer screenings, and a positive result requires follow-up diagnostic testing to determine whether cancer is present and where it may be located.

GRAIL was founded in 2016 as a subsidiary of Illumina and became an independent publicly traded company following its separation from Illumina in 2021.