GRAIL Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:GRAL)

GRAIL, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRAL) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders bought 3,055 call options on the company. This is an increase of 216% compared to the average daily volume of 967 call options.

GRAIL Price Performance

GRAIL stock opened at $75.89 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.78 and a beta of 3.25. GRAIL has a fifty-two week low of $36.98 and a fifty-two week high of $118.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $73.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.03.

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($2.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.66) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $44.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $42.39 million. GRAIL had a negative return on equity of 15.88% and a negative net margin of 236.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 GRAIL 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 253,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,514,585.83. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 397,271 shares in the company, valued at $33,775,980.42. This 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. 1.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of GRAIL

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new position in GRAIL in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $148,836,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of GRAIL during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,389,000. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of GRAIL by 20.5% during the second 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 period. Baker BROS. Advisors LP increased its position in shares of GRAIL by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 2,085,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,484,000 after purchasing an additional 455,208 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of GRAIL by 88.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 408,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,104,000 after purchasing an additional 191,857 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRAL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of GRAIL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Friday, July 17th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of GRAIL in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on GRAIL in a research note on Friday, June 5th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on GRAIL from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.11.

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.