The Goldman Sachs Group Upgrades GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) to Hold

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) was upgraded by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird set a $70.00 price objective on GRAIL in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho started coverage on GRAIL in a research note on Friday, April 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on GRAIL from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on GRAIL from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.00.

GRAIL Price Performance

GRAIL stock opened at $59.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.78 and a beta of 3.15. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $57.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.49. GRAIL has a 1-year low of $29.95 and a 1-year high of $118.84.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported ($2.29) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.76) by $0.47. The business had revenue of $40.79 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.16 million. GRAIL had a negative return on equity of 16.42% and a negative net margin of 253.22%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that GRAIL will post -10.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Andrew John Partridge sold 1,491 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.08, for a total transaction of $91,070.28. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 163,738 shares in the company, valued at $10,001,117.04. The trade was a 0.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 45,806 shares of the business’s 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 $2,286,635.52. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 260,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,012,596.48. This represents a 14.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 245,354 shares of company stock valued at $12,238,545. 1.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRAL. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in GRAIL by 17.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 88,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,250,000 after acquiring an additional 13,264 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in GRAIL by 28.2% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,835 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in GRAIL by 390.3% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 1,401 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in GRAIL by 37.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 92,465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after purchasing an additional 25,177 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in GRAIL by 115.7% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 79,544 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,090,000 after purchasing an additional 42,675 shares during the period.

About GRAIL

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.