GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at UBS Group

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) was upgraded by analysts at UBS Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on GRAL. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on GRAIL in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Mizuho upped their target price on GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of GRAIL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Friday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.11.

GRAIL Stock Performance

Shares of GRAL opened at $76.23 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.55. GRAIL has a 52 week low of $36.87 and a 52 week high of $118.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.82 and a beta of 3.25.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $44.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.39 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that GRAIL will post -10.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at GRAIL

In other news, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of the firm’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 transaction 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Joshua J. Ofman sold 5,000 shares of GRAIL stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 397,271 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,775,980.42. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 1.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of GRAIL

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in shares of GRAIL by 17.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 88,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,250,000 after purchasing an additional 13,264 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of GRAIL by 28.2% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,835 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 623 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of GRAIL by 390.3% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 1,401 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in GRAIL by 37.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 92,465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after acquiring an additional 25,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in GRAIL by 115.7% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 79,544 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,090,000 after purchasing an additional 42,675 shares during the period.

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.