Royal Bank Of Canada Upgrades GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) to Hold

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) was upgraded by stock analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Zacks reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on GRAL. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on GRAIL in a report on Friday, June 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of GRAIL in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of GRAIL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $84.00 price target on shares of GRAIL in a report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.30.

GRAIL Stock Up 6.4%

GRAL opened at $79.95 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $73.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.34. The company has a market cap of $3.57 billion, a PE ratio of -8.20 and a beta of 3.25. GRAIL has a 52 week low of $38.89 and a 52 week high of $118.84.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.66) by $0.10. The company 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that GRAIL will post -10.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GRAIL news, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,514,585.83. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Joshua Ofman sold 5,000 shares of the business’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 $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. 1.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GRAIL

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of GRAIL by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 21,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 4,498 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in GRAIL during the second quarter worth $82,000. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in GRAIL by 8.6% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 10,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $715,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of GRAIL during the 2nd quarter worth $96,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of GRAIL by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 40,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,769,000 after buying an additional 1,357 shares in the last quarter.

About GRAIL

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.