GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Rating Lowered to Sell at Wall Street Zen

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on GRAIL in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on GRAIL in a research report on Friday, June 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price target on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, GRAIL presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.78.

GRAIL Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GRAL opened at $80.34 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.24 and a beta of 3.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.72. GRAIL has a 12 month low of $33.61 and a 12 month high of $118.84.

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 the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $44.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.39 million. Analysts anticipate that GRAIL will post -10.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 transaction of $671,579.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 253,083 shares in the company, valued at $21,514,585.83. This represents a 3.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The shares were 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 directly owned 397,271 shares in the company, valued at $33,775,980.42. This represents a 1.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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 have recently made changes to their positions in GRAL. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in GRAIL by 6,569.8% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,966,058 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,493,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921,588 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in GRAIL during the 2nd quarter worth $148,836,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of GRAIL by 73.7% during the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 2,342,684 shares of the company’s stock worth $200,510,000 after buying an additional 993,684 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of GRAIL during the second quarter worth $49,389,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of GRAIL by 20.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,577,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $244,207,000 after buying an additional 608,539 shares in the last quarter.

GRAIL Company Profile

GRAIL, Inc (NASDAQ: GRAL) is a biotechnology company dedicated to the early detection of cancer through a multi-cancer blood test. Leveraging advances in next-generation sequencing, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis and machine learning, GRAIL has developed the Galleri™ test, which aims to identify more than 50 types of cancer at their earliest stages. The company’s platform analyzes methylation patterns in circulating tumor DNA to pinpoint tumor presence and tissue of origin, enabling physicians to pursue timely diagnostic follow-up.

Founded in 2016 as a spin-out from Illumina, GRAIL established its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, with additional research and operations centers in the United Kingdom.