Insider Selling: GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) CFO Sells 23,619 Shares of Stock

GRAIL, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRAL) CFO Aaron Freidin sold 23,619 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.39, for a total transaction of $3,457,585.41. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 225,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,991,035.96. This represents a 9.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Aaron Freidin also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, September 21st, Aaron Freidin sold 4,100 shares of GRAIL stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.34, for a total transaction of $382,694.00.
• On Thursday, August 27th, Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of GRAIL stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.01, for a total transaction of $671,579.00.

GRAIL Stock Down 3.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:GRAL traded down $4.38 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $132.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 992,328 shares, compared to its average volume of 980,656. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.94 billion, a PE ratio of -13.63 and a beta of 2.83. GRAIL, Inc. has a twelve month low of $41.50 and a twelve month high of $166.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $88.31 and a 200 day moving average of $70.39.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GRAL. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on GRAIL from $80.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Mizuho boosted their price target on GRAIL from $65.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 25th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on GRAIL from $75.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of GRAIL from $96.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, GRAIL currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.70.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GRAIL

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GRAL. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of GRAIL by 20.5% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,577,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,207,000 after purchasing an additional 608,539 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in GRAIL by 26.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,385,514 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,859,000 after purchasing an additional 493,621 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in GRAIL during the second quarter worth approximately $148,836,000. Baker BROS. Advisors LP grew its holdings in GRAIL by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 2,085,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,484,000 after purchasing an additional 455,208 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased 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 buying an additional 205,611 shares in the last quarter.

About GRAIL

GRAIL, Inc is a healthcare company focused on developing blood-based technologies for the early detection of cancer. Its goal is to identify cancer signals before symptoms appear, when treatment may be more effective, by applying genomics, machine learning and other analytical methods to blood samples.

The company’s primary product is the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test, a prescription laboratory-developed test designed to screen for signals associated with multiple types of cancer from a single blood draw.