GRAIL Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:GRAL)

GRAIL, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRAL) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 3,055 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 216% compared to the typical daily volume of 967 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GRAL shares. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $105.00 price target for the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, 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 on the stock. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.11.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of GRAIL stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 253,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,514,585.83. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 GRAIL stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 397,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,775,980.42. This represents a 1.24% 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. Company insiders own 1.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GRAL. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of GRAIL by 6,569.8% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,966,058 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,493,000 after acquiring an additional 2,921,588 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of GRAIL in the 2nd quarter worth $148,836,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of GRAIL in the 2nd quarter worth $49,389,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in 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 during the period. Finally, Baker BROS. Advisors LP increased its stake in GRAIL by 27.9% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter.

GRAIL Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of GRAL stock opened at $75.53 on Tuesday. GRAIL has a fifty-two week low of $36.98 and a fifty-two week high of $118.84. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $73.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.86. The stock has a market cap of $3.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.75 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 the consensus estimate of ($2.66) by $0.10. GRAIL had a negative return on equity of 15.88% and a negative net margin of 236.95%.The company had revenue of $44.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.39 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that GRAIL will post -10.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.