Financial Contrast: GRAIL (GRAL) versus Its Competitors

GRAIL (NASDAQ:GRAL) is one of 844 public companies in the “Biotechnology” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare GRAIL to related businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

GRAIL has a beta of 2.86, indicating that its share price is 186% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GRAIL’s peers have a beta of -1.84, indicating that their average share price is 284% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares GRAIL and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GRAIL	-243.80%	-16.13%	-14.38%
GRAIL Competitors	-12,323.33%	-195.38%	-30.39%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

47.8% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of GRAIL shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Biotechnology” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for GRAIL and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GRAIL	1	6	5	0	2.33
GRAIL Competitors	9869	15282	45600	1598	2.54

GRAIL currently has a consensus price target of $128.80, suggesting a potential upside of 10.06%. As a group, “Biotechnology” companies have a potential upside of 125.78%. Given GRAIL’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe GRAIL has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares GRAIL and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
GRAIL	$166.60 million	-$408.35 million	-12.32
GRAIL Competitors	$754.51 million	$13.58 million	-18.65

GRAIL’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than GRAIL. GRAIL is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

GRAIL peers beat GRAIL on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

GRAIL Company Profile

GRAIL, Inc. is a healthcare company developing blood-based tests for the early detection of multiple cancers. Its approach analyzes patterns in cell-free DNA, including DNA methylation signals, to help identify a possible cancer signal and predict its origin in the body. GRAIL’s flagship product is Galleri, a multi-cancer early detection test intended for use alongside—not as a replacement for—recommended cancer screening. The company also conducts clinical research to evaluate the test and advance its early-detection technology.