Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) versus Grail (NASDAQ:GRAL) Critical Analysis

Grail (NASDAQ:GRAL) and Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.6% of Guardant Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of Guardant Health shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Grail and Guardant Health”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grail	$117.67 million	6.49	N/A	N/A	N/A
Guardant Health	$692.26 million	6.36	-$479.45 million	($4.24)	-8.40

Grail has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Guardant Health.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Grail and Guardant Health, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grail	0	3	0	0	2.00
Guardant Health	0	0	15	0	3.00

Grail currently has a consensus target price of $16.00, indicating a potential downside of 29.64%. Guardant Health has a consensus target price of $40.60, indicating a potential upside of 13.98%. Given Guardant Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Guardant Health is more favorable than Grail.

Profitability

This table compares Grail and Guardant Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grail	N/A	N/A	N/A
Guardant Health	-74.02%	-1,200.44%	-29.88%

Summary

Guardant Health beats Grail on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grail

GRAIL, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on developing technologies for early cancer detection. The company develops Galleri, a screening test for asymptomatic individuals over 50 years of age; and DAC, a diagnostic aid for cancer tests to accelerate diagnostic resolution for patients for whom there is a clinical suspicion of cancer. It is also developing minimal residual disease and other post-diagnostic tests. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is based in Menlo Park, California. GRAIL, Inc. operates as a former subsidiary of Illumina, Inc.

About Guardant Health

Guardant Health, Inc., a precision oncology company, provides blood and tissue tests, data sets, and analytics in the United States and internationally. The company provides Guardant360; Guardant360 LDT; Guardant360 CDx Test; Guardant360 Response Test; Guardant360 TissueNext Test; GuardantINFINITY Test; GuardantConnect, an integrated software-based solution designed for clinical and biopharmaceutical customers to connect patients tested with assays with actionable alterations with potentially relevant clinical studies; GuardantOMNI Test for advanced stage cancer; and GuardantINFORM, an in-silico research platform for tumor evolution and treatment resistance across various biomarker-driven cancers. It offers Shield Test; Guardant Reveal Test for adjuvant treatment selection in early-stage cancer patients; Smart Liquid Biopsy Platform; and Guardant Galaxy, an AI-backed digital pathology platform that helps improve cancer biomarker detection. In addition, the company offers development services, including companion diagnostic development and regulatory approval, clinical study setup, monitoring and maintenance, testing development and support, technologies licensing, and kits fulfillment. The company has a collaboration agreement with Illumina, Inc. for the sharing of specimen samples to advance cancer research. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.