Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Hits New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $50.78 and last traded at $49.39, with a volume of 258542 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $47.65.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Leerink Partners dropped their price objective on Guardant Health from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Barclays initiated coverage on Guardant Health in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $60.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Guardant Health from $36.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein dropped 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. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $42.63.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.92. The company has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -11.85 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Insider Activity

In other Guardant Health news, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 2,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.90, for a total value of $86,590.40. Following the sale, the director now directly 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Musa Tariq sold 2,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $81,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,660. The trade was a 46.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,548 shares of company stock worth $179,782 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 47.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 929 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $377,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,464,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,732,000 after purchasing an additional 238,037 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 26,198 shares of the company’s stock valued at $800,000 after buying an additional 2,537 shares during the period. Finally, R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Guardant Health Company Profile

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.