Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $175.00 to $200.00. The stock had previously closed at $150.03, but opened at $160.76. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Guardant Health shares last traded at $160.6090, with a volume of 846,171 shares.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Thursday, June 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $185.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler set a $127.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Thursday, May 21st. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, June 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 210,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.89, for a total transaction of $23,076,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,886,504 shares in the company, valued at $207,307,924.56. This represents a 10.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.98, for a total value of $1,269,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 11,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,420,017.34. The trade was a 47.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 712,513 shares of company stock valued at $90,921,587 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 164.7% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $118.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.66. The firm has a market cap of $22.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -49.55 and a beta of 1.59.

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.