GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, TD Cowen Analyst Says

Key Points

• TD Cowen raised GRAIL’s price target to $180 from $88 and maintained a “buy” rating, implying 27.6% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: five analysts rate GRAIL a Buy, six rate it Hold, and one rates it Sell, producing a consensus “Hold” rating and $119.80 target.
• GRAIL reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with an adjusted loss of $2.56 per share versus the $2.66 estimate and revenue of $44.69 million versus $42.39 million expected; however, the company remains unprofitable and insiders have recently sold shares.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL - Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by analysts at TD Cowen from $88.00 to $180.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "buy" rating on the stock. TD Cowen's price objective suggests a potential upside of 27.60% from the company's previous close.

GRAL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wall Street Zen raised GRAIL from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, September 13th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on GRAIL from $96.00 to $118.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. UBS Group raised their target price on GRAIL from $105.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on GRAIL in a report on Thursday, September 17th. They set a "sector perform" rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $119.80.

GRAIL Price Performance

Shares of GRAIL stock traded up $3.69 on Tuesday, hitting $141.06. The company had a trading volume of 193,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 975,405. GRAIL has a 52 week low of $41.50 and a 52 week high of $166.48. The company has a market cap of $6.30 billion, a PE ratio of -14.46 and a beta of 2.83. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.85.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.66) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $44.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $42.39 million. GRAIL had a negative return on equity of 15.88% and a negative net margin of 236.95%. On average, equities research analysts predict that GRAIL will post -10.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Aaron Freidin sold 23,619 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.39, for a total transaction of $3,457,585.41. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 225,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,991,035.96. This trade represents a 9.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew Partridge sold 7,873 shares of GRAIL stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.39, for a total transaction of $1,152,528.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 155,865 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,817,077.35. This trade represents a 4.81% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 109,944 shares of company stock worth $12,095,805. Corporate insiders own 1.83% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GRAIL

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of GRAIL by 29.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 914,114 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,241,000 after purchasing an additional 205,611 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in GRAIL by 255.6% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 28,403 shares of the company's stock worth $1,939,000 after purchasing an additional 20,416 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in GRAIL in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,171,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in GRAIL by 26.1% in the 2nd 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. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in GRAIL by 20.5% during the 2nd 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 during the period.

About GRAIL

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.

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