MoatScopeGRAIL, Inc.GRAL
Spin-off from Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) · Jun 24, 2024 · Nasdaq
one share of GRAIL for every six shares of Illumina; at least 85.5% of Illumina's GRAIL shares distributed
Documents
Both companies today
Moat ratings, quality scores and fair value estimates are MoatScope research opinions and refresh with the data pipeline. Price / FV below 1.00× means the shares trade under our base-case estimate.
What is being separated
GRAIL is a commercial-stage healthcare company focused on early cancer detection; its Galleri blood test screens for many types of cancer with a single test.
Stated rationaleIllumina divested GRAIL after regulators required it to unwind the 2021 acquisition; the spin-off returned GRAIL to independence, funded by Illumina.
The four questions
Indiscriminate selling
StrongManagement incentives
PartialThe hidden jewel
PartialLeverage
AbsentThe write-up
Illumina distributed GRAIL on June 24, 2024, one GRAIL share for every six Illumina shares, keeping a 14.5% stake. The separation was ordered rather than chosen: the European Commission and the US FTC required Illumina to unwind its acquisition, and the spin-off returned GRAIL to shareholders rather than selling it. GRAIL develops the Galleri multi-cancer early-detection blood test, and Illumina capitalized it with roughly $1 billion of cash — about two and a half years of operations by the filing's estimate — and no debt. On MoatScope's framework GRAIL carries no moat rating and a quality score of 20 at a $3.0 billion market value, trading at $80.34, with no meaningful earnings-based fair value; Illumina carries a Narrow moat and a quality score of 59 at $33.8 billion, 1.36× fair value.
Not investment advice. Terms are as stated in the latest filing; spin-off shares are often thinly covered and volatile in their first months. Write-up dated Sep 8, 2026.