Erste Asset Management GmbH Buys 66,617 Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Erste Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 705,217 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 66,617 shares during the quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH owned 0.56% of Guardant Health worth $43,716,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in Guardant Health by 6.6% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,378,000 after purchasing an additional 317,906 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,558,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,184,000 after acquiring an additional 763,834 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,920,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,014,000 after acquiring an additional 13,088 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Guardant Health by 78.2% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,319,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,730,000 after acquiring an additional 1,018,144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its stake in Guardant Health by 49.6% in the second quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,030,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,623,000 after acquiring an additional 673,438 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In related news, insider Chris Freeman sold 31,452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.07, for a total value of $3,241,757.64. Following the sale, the insider owned 25,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,678,480.09. The trade was a 54.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 80,362 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.14, for a total value of $8,288,536.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 28,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,893,283.28. This represents a 74.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 434,511 shares of company stock valued at $45,580,887 in the last quarter. Insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GH shares. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Friday, February 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Guardant Health from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $129.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.57.

Guardant Health Trading Up 2.8%

NASDAQ:GH opened at $97.97 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $106.40 and its 200-day moving average is $87.24. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.88 and a 1-year high of $120.74. The stock has a market cap of $12.85 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.60 and a beta of 1.63.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.62) EPS. Guardant Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 EPS for the current year.

Guardant Health Profile

Guardant Health, Inc is a precision oncology company specializing in blood-based cancer diagnostics. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company develops non-invasive tests that use circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to profile genomic alterations in patients with solid tumors. Guardant Health’s mission is to advance cancer care by providing actionable data to clinicians, pharmaceutical partners and researchers worldwide.

The company’s flagship product, Guardant360, is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay designed to detect mutations, copy number variations and select fusions in more than 70 cancer-related genes.