Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and nineteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $129.00.

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on GH shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $129.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Monday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $127.00 price target on Guardant Health in a report on Thursday.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of GH stock opened at $118.95 on Monday. Guardant Health has a 1-year low of $36.36 and a 1-year high of $121.01. The company has a market capitalization of $15.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.09 and a beta of 1.48. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $91.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.94.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $281.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.74 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.62) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Guardant Health will post -2.92 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In other news, insider John G. Saia sold 20,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.51, for a total transaction of $2,130,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 45,950 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,894,134.50. The trade was a 30.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 210,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.89, for a total value of $23,076,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,886,504 shares in the company, valued at $207,307,924.56. This trade represents a 10.02% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 296,838 shares of company stock valued at $31,878,906 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,554,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 705,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,716,000 after acquiring an additional 66,617 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 57.8% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 305,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,066,000 after acquiring an additional 111,822 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 188,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,797,000 after acquiring an additional 26,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 21,982 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,373,000 after acquiring an additional 13,378 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

About Guardant Health

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.