Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Castle Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSTL)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $36.00 to $37.00. The stock had previously closed at $25.28, but opened at $26.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Castle Biosciences shares last traded at $23.26, with a volume of 66,192 shares trading hands.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Castle Biosciences from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Castle Biosciences from $37.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Lake Street Capital lifted their price objective on Castle Biosciences from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $41.00 target price on shares of Castle Biosciences in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Daniel Bradbury sold 7,867 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.14, for a total transaction of $229,244.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,425 shares in the company, valued at $41,524.50. This trade represents a 84.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Derek J. Maetzold sold 1,972 shares of Castle Biosciences stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.35, for a total value of $61,822.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 85,748 shares in the company, valued at $2,688,199.80. This trade represents a 2.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 30,771 shares of company stock worth $886,112 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 7.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Castle Biosciences by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,832,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,837,000 after buying an additional 83,783 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Castle Biosciences by 2.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,538,520 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,879,000 after acquiring an additional 40,377 shares in the last quarter. Bellevue Group AG increased its stake in Castle Biosciences by 3.7% during the third quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 1,262,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,993,000 after acquiring an additional 44,929 shares during the last quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Castle Biosciences by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC now owns 1,255,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,811,000 after purchasing an additional 44,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Castle Biosciences by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 999,466 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,636,000 after purchasing an additional 134,645 shares during the period. 92.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Castle Biosciences Trading Down 8.0 %

The stock has a market cap of $651.69 million, a P/E ratio of 115.77 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 7.78, a quick ratio of 7.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $27.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.19.

Castle Biosciences Company Profile

Castle Biosciences, Inc, a molecular diagnostics company, provides testing solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of dermatologic cancers, Barrett's esophagus, uveal melanoma, and mental health conditions. It offers DecisionDx-Melanoma, a risk stratification gene expression profile (GEP) test to identify the risk of metastasis for patients diagnosed with invasive cutaneous melanoma; DecisionDx-SCC, a proprietary risk stratification GEP test for patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; MyPath Melanoma, a test used for patients with difficult-to-diagnose melanocytic lesions; and TissueCypher, a spatial omics test to predict future development of high-grade dysplasia and/or esophageal cancer in patients with non-dysplastic, indefinite dysplasia, or low-grade dysplasia Barrett's esophagus.