Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Receives $102.81 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $102.8095.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GH shares. Mizuho set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on Guardant Health from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. BTIG Research raised their price objective on Guardant Health from $100.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Chris Freeman sold 31,452 shares of Guardant Health 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 25,987 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,678,480.09. This trade represents a 54.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 90,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.82, for a total value of $9,402,458.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,047,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $212,534,386.26. This trade represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 445,123 shares of company stock worth $46,600,702. 6.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter valued at about $114,421,000. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Guardant Health by 100.4% during the second quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 2,823,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,935,000 after buying an additional 1,414,381 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth about $64,136,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Guardant Health by 78.2% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,319,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,730,000 after purchasing an additional 1,018,144 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Guardant Health by 27.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,558,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,184,000 after acquiring an additional 763,834 shares in the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of Guardant Health stock opened at $114.75 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $105.24 and a 200-day moving average of $77.63. Guardant Health has a 52-week low of $34.88 and a 52-week high of $120.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.75 and a beta of 1.58.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.39) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by $0.09. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.88) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 38.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Guardant Health will post -2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.