Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at The Goldman Sachs Group

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) was upgraded by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $129.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $127.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $137.80.

Guardant Health Stock Down 5.6%

Shares of NASDAQ GH opened at $125.61 on Friday. Guardant Health has a 52-week low of $40.35 and a 52-week high of $134.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $99.39 and a 200-day moving average of $101.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.66 billion, a PE ratio of -37.05 and a beta of 1.61.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In related news, insider Chris Freeman sold 24,406 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.67, for a total transaction of $2,896,260.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 60,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,124,234.78. This represents a 28.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 210,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,886,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,307,924.56. This represents a 10.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 350,238 shares of company stock valued at $38,538,372. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Perceptive Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Guardant Health by 87.5% during the first quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 300,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,711,000 after purchasing an additional 140,000 shares during the last quarter. BankChampaign National Association purchased a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $809,000. Western Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $125,000. Hamilton Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 103.0% in the 1st quarter. Hamilton Wealth LLC now owns 76,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,085,000 after acquiring an additional 38,916 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 321.6% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 32,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,980,000 after acquiring an additional 24,606 shares in the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.