GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Sets New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

GRAIL, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRAL)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Thursday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $105.00 to $175.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. GRAIL traded as high as $151.46 and last traded at $140.12, with a volume of 1920136 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $136.57.

GRAL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Mizuho lifted 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. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. 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. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on GRAIL from $80.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on GRAIL in a report on Thursday, September 17th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $84.00 target price for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, GRAIL presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Joshua J. Ofman sold 61,452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.74, for a total value of $6,006,318.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 362,271 shares in the company, valued at $35,408,367.54. This trade represents a 14.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 7,900 shares of GRAIL stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.01, for a total value of $671,579.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 253,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,514,585.83. This represents a 3.03% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 78,452 shares of company stock valued at $7,485,691. 1.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of GRAIL

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in GRAIL by 20.5% during 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 last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in GRAIL by 26.1% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in GRAIL in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $148,836,000. Baker BROS. Advisors LP raised its position in GRAIL by 27.9% in 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. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of GRAIL by 29.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 914,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,241,000 after buying an additional 205,611 shares during the period.

GRAIL Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $6.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.69 and a beta of 2.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $85.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $68.85.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.66) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $44.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.39 million. GRAIL had a negative net margin of 236.95% and a negative return on equity of 15.88%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that GRAIL, Inc. will post -10.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GRAIL Company Profile

GRAIL, Inc is a healthcare company focused on developing blood-based technologies for the early detection of cancer. Its goal is to identify cancer signals before symptoms appear, when treatment may be more effective, by applying genomics, machine learning and other analytical methods to blood samples.

The company’s primary product is the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test, a prescription laboratory-developed test designed to screen for signals associated with multiple types of cancer from a single blood draw.