GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Shares of GRAIL, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRAL) gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $80.77, but opened at $93.74. GRAIL shares last traded at $102.00, with a volume of 601,651 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRAL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Friday, July 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Friday, June 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised GRAIL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.30.

GRAIL Trading Up 31.5%

The firm has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.85 and a beta of 3.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $74.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.54.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) 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 firm had revenue of $44.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.39 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that GRAIL, Inc. will post -10.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Joshua J. 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 directly owned 397,271 shares in the company, valued at $33,775,980.42. The trade was a 1.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were 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 directly owned 253,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,514,585.83. The trade was a 3.03% decrease in their position. 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 corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of GRAIL

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