Robert W. Baird Upgrades Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) to Strong-Buy

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) was upgraded by research analysts at Robert W. Baird to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on GH. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Guardant Health from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Mizuho set a $135.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, January 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.45.

Guardant Health Price Performance

NASDAQ GH opened at $107.11 on Tuesday. Guardant Health has a fifty-two week low of $34.88 and a fifty-two week high of $120.74. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $106.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $85.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.50 billion, a PE ratio of -33.37 and a beta of 1.63.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.05, for a total transaction of $10,505,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 168,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,671,826.15. This trade represents a 37.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Freeman sold 31,452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.07, for a total value of $3,241,757.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 25,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,678,480.09. This represents a 54.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 434,511 shares of company stock worth $45,580,887. Corporate insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Guardant Health by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,242,101,000 after buying an additional 251,939 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 33.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,414,441 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in shares of Guardant Health by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,378,000 after purchasing an additional 317,906 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised 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 valued at $185,184,000 after buying an additional 763,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Guardant Health by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,361,547 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,348,000 after buying an additional 435,232 shares during 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.