Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

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

CSTL has been the subject of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird set a $36.00 target price on shares of Castle Biosciences in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Roth Capital initiated coverage on shares of Castle Biosciences in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock. KeyCorp set a $35.00 price target on shares of Castle Biosciences in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Castle Biosciences from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Castle Biosciences from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.00.

Castle Biosciences Trading Up 1.8%

NASDAQ:CSTL opened at $35.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 6.04, a quick ratio of 5.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. Castle Biosciences has a 1-year low of $17.72 and a 1-year high of $44.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -54.26 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $31.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.95.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Kristen M. Oelschlager sold 12,384 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief operating officer owned 72,649 shares in the company, valued at $2,500,578.58. This represents a 14.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tobin W. Juvenal sold 3,294 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.14, for a total transaction of $115,751.16. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 58,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,058,641.76. This represents a 5.32% decrease in their position. 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 196,854 shares of company stock worth $6,083,615. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Castle Biosciences

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Castle Biosciences during the 2nd quarter worth about $78,513,000. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Castle Biosciences by 164.7% in the fourth quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC now owns 1,058,725 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,184,000 after purchasing an additional 658,725 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Castle Biosciences during the second quarter worth about $15,440,000. AIGH Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Castle Biosciences during the second quarter worth about $13,001,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Castle Biosciences by 8.1% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 532,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,080,000 after buying an additional 39,700 shares during the period. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Castle Biosciences

Castle Biosciences, Inc is a molecular diagnostics company that develops and commercializes tests designed to help physicians make more informed decisions about cancer diagnosis and treatment. Its products use genomic and molecular information to assess disease characteristics, patient risk and likely outcomes.

The company’s portfolio includes DecisionDx-Melanoma, which helps assess the risk of metastasis in patients with cutaneous melanoma; DecisionDx-SCC, which evaluates metastatic risk in certain patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; and MyPath Melanoma, which assists in distinguishing benign from malignant melanocytic lesions.