Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

CSTL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird set a $36.00 price target on Castle Biosciences in a research report on Friday, July 31st. BTIG Research raised their price objective on Castle Biosciences from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Castle Biosciences from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.00.

Castle Biosciences Stock Performance

CSTL opened at $33.30 on Friday. Castle Biosciences has a one year low of $17.72 and a one year high of $44.28. The company has a quick ratio of 5.85, a current ratio of 6.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.77.

Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.41) by $0.34. The company 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%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Castle Biosciences will post -1.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Tobin Juvenal sold 3,288 shares of Castle Biosciences stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.64, for a total transaction of $110,608.32. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 48,719 shares in the company, valued at $1,638,907.16. This trade represents a 6.32% decrease in their position. 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, COO Kristen Oelschlager sold 4,153 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.95, for a total value of $149,300.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 13,356 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $480,148.20. The trade was a 23.72% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 211,606 shares of company stock worth $6,867,628 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Castle Biosciences in the 2nd quarter worth $78,513,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Castle Biosciences during the second quarter valued at $15,440,000. AIGH Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Castle Biosciences during the second quarter valued at $13,001,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Castle Biosciences by 8.1% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 532,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,080,000 after purchasing an additional 39,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Castle Biosciences in the second quarter valued at about $7,912,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.