Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Sets New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $39.29 and last traded at $38.89, with a volume of 133117 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.10.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Leerink Partners cut their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $40.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.60.

Guardant Health Stock Up 0.1 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $32.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.99 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 6.22, a quick ratio of 5.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.70.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.88) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.55) by ($0.33). Guardant Health had a negative net margin of 74.02% and a negative return on equity of 1,200.44%. The business had revenue of $191.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $170.49 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.73) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 2,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.90, for a total value of $86,590.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,648 shares in the company, valued at approximately $228,675.20. The trade was a 27.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Musa Tariq sold 2,320 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $81,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $93,660. This trade represents a 46.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,432 shares of company stock valued at $175,423 in the last ninety days. 5.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Guardant Health by 188.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,127,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,325,000 after acquiring an additional 6,618,785 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 1,282.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,226,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,482 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in Guardant Health by 233.5% during the 3rd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 1,512,694 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,701,000 after buying an additional 1,059,104 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in Guardant Health in the third quarter valued at about $21,389,000. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the third quarter worth about $15,624,000. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

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.