Mizuho Begins Coverage on Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL)

Key Points

• Mizuho initiated coverage of Castle Biosciences with an “outperform” rating and a $60 price target, implying approximately 63.6% upside from the reported $36.68 share price.
• Analyst sentiment is generally positive: Castle Biosciences has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $44.25, based on ratings from 11 analysts.
• The company exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting a loss of $0.07 per share versus the projected $0.41 loss and revenue of $99.86 million versus an $86.23 million estimate. However, insiders sold about $6.98 million of stock over the past 90 days.

Analysts at Mizuho began coverage on shares of Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm set an "outperform" rating and a $60.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 63.58% from the stock's current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on CSTL. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Castle Biosciences from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, October 24th. BTIG Research lifted their target price on shares of Castle Biosciences from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $36.00 target price on shares of Castle Biosciences in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Castle Biosciences from a "sell (e+)" rating to a "sell (d-)" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $44.25.

Castle Biosciences Price Performance

NASDAQ:CSTL opened at $36.68 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.58 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 6.04, a quick ratio of 5.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company's 50-day moving average is $34.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.69. Castle Biosciences has a 12-month low of $17.72 and a 12-month high of $44.28.

Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.41) by $0.34. The business had revenue of $99.86 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $86.23 million. Castle Biosciences had a negative net margin of 5.43% and a negative return on equity of 4.15%. Research analysts expect that Castle Biosciences will post -1.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Kristen M. Oelschlager sold 12,384 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.42, for a total value of $426,257.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 72,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,500,578.58. The trade was a 14.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Derek Maetzold sold 20,356 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.11, for a total transaction of $633,275.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 21,479 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $668,211.69. The trade was a 48.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 214,894 shares of company stock valued at $6,976,395 in the last 90 days. 6.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Castle Biosciences

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Advisors Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Castle Biosciences in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,681,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Castle Biosciences during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $78,513,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Castle Biosciences during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,338,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Castle Biosciences during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,395,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Castle Biosciences by 387.3% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 45,476 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 36,144 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company's stock.

Castle Biosciences Company Profile

Castle Biosciences, Inc is a molecular diagnostics company that develops and commercializes tests designed to help physicians diagnose cancer, assess disease risk and guide treatment decisions. The company focuses on conditions in which additional biological information can complement traditional pathology and clinical assessment.

Its portfolio includes DecisionDx-Melanoma, which helps evaluate the risk of metastatic recurrence in patients with cutaneous melanoma; DecisionDx-SCC, which assesses metastatic risk in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; and DecisionDx-UM, a test for determining metastatic risk in uveal melanoma.

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