GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Stock Price Up 5.5% – Time to Buy?

Shares of GRAIL, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRAL) rose 5.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The company traded as high as $141.97 and last traded at $144.0280. 113,792 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 962,223 shares. The stock had previously closed at $136.57.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRAL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of GRAIL from $96.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of GRAIL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 13th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of GRAIL from $65.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on GRAIL in a report on Friday, June 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on GRAIL from $80.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, GRAIL presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $85.60.

GRAIL Price Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.02. The company has a market cap of $6.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.37 and a beta of 3.25.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.66) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $44.69 million during 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that GRAIL, Inc. will post -10.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other GRAIL news, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 4,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.34, for a total value of $382,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 248,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,240,073.22. The trade was a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Joshua Ofman sold 61,452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.74, for a total transaction of $6,006,318.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 362,271 shares in the company, valued at $35,408,367.54. The trade was a 14.50% 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. Insiders sold a total of 78,452 shares of company stock valued at $7,485,691 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in GRAIL by 20.5% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,577,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,207,000 after acquiring an additional 608,539 shares during the last quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP raised its holdings in GRAIL by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 2,085,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,484,000 after purchasing an additional 455,208 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in GRAIL by 26.1% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new stake in shares of GRAIL during the 2nd quarter valued at $148,836,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of GRAIL by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 801,503 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,609,000 after acquiring an additional 71,253 shares during 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.