First Light Asset Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

First Light Asset Management LLC raised its position in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) by 117.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 280,001 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 151,133 shares during the quarter. Guardant Health makes up approximately 1.6% of First Light Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. First Light Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Guardant Health were worth $17,494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 24.8% in the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 873,203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,558,000 after purchasing an additional 173,281 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,554,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in Guardant Health by 147.3% during the 2nd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 50,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,629,000 after buying an additional 30,094 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 54.4% during the 3rd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 301,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,835,000 after buying an additional 106,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $567,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on GH shares. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Evercore set a $110.00 target price on Guardant Health in a report on Friday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Guardant Health from $105.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Guardant Health news, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.54, for a total transaction of $119,002.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $109,207.22. This trade represents a 52.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Terilyn J. Monroe sold 8,571 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.09, for a total value of $977,865.39. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 20,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,394,749.10. This represents a 28.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,018 shares of company stock valued at $2,232,911. 6.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Guardant Health Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of Guardant Health stock opened at $85.49 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $103.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $90.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -25.83 and a beta of 1.67. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.36 and a 52 week high of $120.74.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $269.74 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.62) earnings per share. Guardant Health’s revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.