Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL) Shares Down 7.3% Following Insider Selling

Shares of Castle Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSTL - Get Free Report) dropped 7.3% on Friday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $28.48 and last traded at $28.58. Approximately 177,806 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 45% from the average daily volume of 325,046 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.83.

Specifically, insider Derek J. Maetzold sold 1,972 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.15, for a total transaction of $67,343.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 87,720 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,995,638. This represents a 2.20 % 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank raised their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Castle Biosciences from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Lake Street Capital increased their price target on shares of Castle Biosciences from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. 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. Finally, BTIG Research increased their target price on shares of Castle Biosciences from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Castle Biosciences has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $37.88.

Castle Biosciences Price Performance

The company's 50-day simple moving average is $31.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $787.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 144.46 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 7.64, a current ratio of 7.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02.

Castle Biosciences (NASDAQ:CSTL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.14. Castle Biosciences had a return on equity of 1.47% and a net margin of 1.95%. The business had revenue of $85.78 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.55 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.26) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Castle Biosciences, Inc. will post -0.08 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CSTL. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Castle Biosciences by 2.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,538,520 shares of the company's stock valued at $43,879,000 after acquiring an additional 40,377 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Castle Biosciences by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,494,176 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,096,000 after buying an additional 32,695 shares during the last quarter. Bellevue Group AG increased its position in Castle Biosciences by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 1,262,030 shares of the company's stock worth $35,993,000 after buying an additional 44,929 shares during the period. Portolan Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Castle Biosciences by 3.7% during the third quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC now owns 1,255,628 shares of the company's stock worth $35,811,000 after buying an additional 44,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Castle Biosciences by 8.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 809,934 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,631,000 after acquiring an additional 60,675 shares during the period. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Castle Biosciences

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.