Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07), FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. Guardant Health’s quarterly revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.62) EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Guardant Health’s conference call:

• Guardant reported strong top-line momentum with $281M in Q4 (+39% YoY) and $982M for FY2025 (+33% YoY), and guided 2026 revenue of $1.25B–$1.28B (27%–30% growth) toward a $2.2B 2028 target.
• Profitability metrics improved: non‑GAAP gross margin rose to 66%, Reveal cost-per-test fell to under $500, Shield gross margin reached 52% in Q4, and further margin upside is expected from the NovaSeq X transition (~200 bps potential on Guardant360).
• Shield screening is scaling rapidly — ~87,000 tests in 2025 (38,000 in Q4), 93% adherence, an ADLT rate of $1,495, ~300 sales reps and collaborations with Quest and PathGroup — company expects 210k–225k Shield tests in 2026.
• Screening is cash‑intensive: ~ $220M of the company’s $233M 2025 free cash flow burn was driven by Shield, and Guardant expects a similar screening burn (~$220M) in 2026, which delays company‑wide cash flow breakeven until end of 2027 despite the core business being FCF‑positive.

Guardant Health Stock Down 3.1%

NASDAQ GH opened at $103.10 on Friday. Guardant Health has a 52 week low of $34.88 and a 52 week high of $120.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.15 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $106.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $85.94.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on GH shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $105.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore set a $110.00 target price on Guardant Health in a research report on Friday. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Guardant Health has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.43.

More Guardant Health News

Here are the key news stories impacting Guardant Health this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages raised price targets and maintained buy/overweight ratings (Leerink to $180, JPMorgan to $130, Wells Fargo to $125, BTIG to $145, Canaccord to $135), signaling analyst confidence in upside from current levels. Analyst Raises Coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Q4 revenue beat and strong growth: Guardant reported $281.3M in Q4 revenue, +39% YoY and above consensus; management issued FY2026 revenue guidance around $1.3B, above Street expectations — a growth signal for core oncology testing. Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: Research coverage expansion: Robert W. Baird initiated coverage, which can broaden institutional interest and trading liquidity. Coverage Start
• Neutral Sentiment: Conference call and transcript available — provides detail on cadence of test volume, reimbursement progress and product roadmap; useful for digging into guidance assumptions. Earnings Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Market materials (slide deck, press release) posted for investors to verify segment trends and margin assumptions. Slide Deck / Press Release
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data flagged a “significant increase” entry but shows 0 shares / NaN in the feed — the published data appears inconsistent, so short-interest impact is unclear. Short Interest Note
• Negative Sentiment: EPS miss: GAAP loss of ($0.50) vs. consensus (~($0.43)), which disappointed some investors despite revenue upside and may have pressured the stock near the close. Earnings Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Management left EPS guidance effectively blank in the release (revenue guidance given but no numeric EPS target), which can create uncertainty around near-term profitability expectations. Guidance Details

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 80,362 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.14, for a total value of $8,288,536.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 28,052 shares in the company, valued at $2,893,283.28. This represents a 74.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 90,565 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,047,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $212,534,386.26. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 434,511 shares of company stock valued at $45,580,887 in the last 90 days. 6.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the third quarter worth about $114,421,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Guardant Health by 33.5% during the 4th 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 period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in Guardant Health by 124.3% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 570,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,620,000 after acquiring an additional 315,896 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 205.6% during the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 464,905 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,485,000 after purchasing an additional 312,783 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,657,000. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

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.