Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and nineteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $128.6316.

A number of research firms have weighed in on GH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Guardant Health news, Director Musa Tariq sold 348 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.09, for a total transaction of $30,655.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $739,427.46. The trade was a 3.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total value of $261,120.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 43,601 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,031.04. The trade was a 6.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 8,596 shares of company stock valued at $775,767 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 19.5% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 2,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. First Pacific Financial raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 33.1% in the first quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 3.2% in the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 4,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Xponance LLC raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 9,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $984,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Stock Up 3.0%

GH stock opened at $92.25 on Thursday. Guardant Health has a twelve month low of $36.36 and a twelve month high of $120.74. The company has a market cap of $12.23 billion, a PE ratio of -27.87 and a beta of 1.48. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $96.73.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.74 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.62) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Guardant Health will post -2.87 EPS for the current 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.