GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Upgraded at UBS Group

UBS Group upgraded shares of GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday,Zacks reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on GRAL. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on GRAIL in a research note on Friday, June 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen lowered GRAIL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on GRAIL in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, GRAIL has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.11.

GRAIL Stock Performance

NASDAQ GRAL opened at $76.23 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $73.49 and a 200-day moving average of $62.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.82 and a beta of 3.25. GRAIL has a 52 week low of $36.87 and a 52 week high of $118.84.

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

Insider Activity at GRAIL

In other news, 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 transaction of $671,579.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 253,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,514,585.83. This represents a 3.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Joshua J. Ofman sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.02, for a total transaction of $425,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 397,271 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,775,980.42. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 1.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GRAL. Bank of America Corp DE lifted 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 worth $47,241,000 after purchasing an additional 205,611 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position 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 in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in GRAIL by 154,361.0% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 91,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,531,000 after buying an additional 91,073 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in GRAIL by 141.2% in the 4th quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,949,000 after buying an additional 13,334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in GRAIL by 20.5% during 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 in 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.