Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Stock Price Up 7.2% – What’s Next?

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH)’s share price shot up 7.2% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $105.28 and last traded at $105.2190. 314,569 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 2,010,075 shares. The stock had previously closed at $98.19.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GH. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore set a $110.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.42.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $89.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.46. The company has a market cap of $14.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -32.01 and a beta of 1.48.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.62) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In related news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total transaction of $5,016,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,096,504 shares in the company, valued at $210,321,281.28. This represents a 2.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total transaction of $261,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 43,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,795,031.04. The trade was a 6.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 58,712 shares of company stock worth $5,802,899 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guardant Health

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Guardant Health by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,242,101,000 after acquiring an additional 251,939 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Guardant Health by 33.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,414,441 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 317,906 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Guardant Health by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,361,547 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,348,000 after acquiring an additional 435,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Guardant Health by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,213,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,297,000 after acquiring an additional 277,001 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Company 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.