1,311,320 Shares in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH Purchased by William Blair Investment Management LLC

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,311,320 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,737,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,242,101,000 after acquiring an additional 251,939 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of 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 valued at $575,670,000 after buying an additional 1,414,441 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,361,547 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,348,000 after purchasing an additional 435,232 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Guardant Health by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,213,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,297,000 after purchasing an additional 277,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,441,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,398,000 after acquiring an additional 72,162 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Price Performance

Shares of GH stock opened at $170.69 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $153.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $118.69. The firm has a market cap of $22.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -48.91 and a beta of 1.60. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.40 and a 1-year high of $176.58.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.76) by $0.34. The company had revenue of $334.98 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $314.23 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.44) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on GH shares. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Guardant Health from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Guardant Health from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Bank of America raised their target price on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Guardant Health from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $183.78.

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In other news, insider Terilyn J. Monroe sold 46,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.12, for a total value of $7,645,056.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 22,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,794,292.48. This trade represents a 66.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 143,028 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.54, for a total transaction of $21,674,463.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,881,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $285,097,657.44. This trade represents a 7.07% 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. Insiders sold 521,818 shares of company stock valued at $77,539,233 in the last ninety days. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.