GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at UBS Group

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

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on GRAL. Wall Street Zen lowered GRAIL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on GRAIL in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Mizuho upped their price objective on GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.11.

GRAIL Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GRAL opened at $76.23 on Wednesday. GRAIL has a one year low of $36.87 and a one year high of $118.84. The company has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.82 and a beta of 3.25. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.55.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at GRAIL

In other GRAIL news, CEO Joshua Ofman sold 5,000 shares of GRAIL stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.02, for a total transaction of $425,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 397,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,775,980.42. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.01, for a total value of $671,579.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 253,083 shares in the company, valued at $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 company insiders.

Institutional Trading of GRAIL

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRAL. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of GRAIL in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in GRAIL in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Comerica Bank lifted its holdings in GRAIL by 59.2% in the third quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in GRAIL by 15,733.3% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in GRAIL during the second quarter valued at $35,000.

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.