Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $112.44 and last traded at $112.33, with a volume of 4490409 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $101.87.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GH shares. Evercore ISI set a $105.00 target price on Guardant Health and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $85.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $100.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on Guardant Health from $63.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Twenty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $99.71.

Guardant Health Trading Down 1.1%

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.73. The company has a market capitalization of $13.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -33.88 and a beta of 1.58.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.39) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by $0.09. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.88) earnings per share. Guardant Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Darya Chudova sold 5,451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.04, for a total transaction of $567,122.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 7,012 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $729,528.48. This trade represents a 43.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ian T. Clark sold 28,611 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.19, for a total transaction of $3,066,813.09. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,851 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,055,928.69. This trade represents a 74.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 426,663 shares of company stock valued at $44,508,069. 6.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GH. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in Guardant Health by 6.6% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,378,000 after buying an additional 317,906 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,558,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,184,000 after acquiring an additional 763,834 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 26.1% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,926,315 shares of the company’s stock worth $182,836,000 after acquiring an additional 606,368 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,920,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,014,000 after acquiring an additional 13,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 100.4% in the 2nd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 2,823,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,935,000 after acquiring an additional 1,414,381 shares during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.