Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-four analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and twenty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $102.8095.

GH has been the topic of several analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $63.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Mizuho set a $135.00 price target on Guardant Health in a report on Friday, January 9th.

Guardant Health Stock Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:GH opened at $112.14 on Tuesday. Guardant Health has a 52 week low of $34.88 and a 52 week high of $115.54. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $75.98. The company has a market cap of $14.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.93 and a beta of 1.58.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.39) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.48) by $0.09. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.88) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Guardant Health will post -2.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, insider Chris Freeman sold 31,452 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.07, for a total value of $3,241,757.64. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 25,987 shares in the company, valued at $2,678,480.09. This represents a 54.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 80,362 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.14, for a total transaction of $8,288,536.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 28,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,893,283.28. This represents a 74.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 436,552 shares of company stock valued at $45,622,836 over the last three months. 6.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guardant Health

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Eastern Bank grew its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 2,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $212,000. World Equity Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth approximately $348,000. Finally, Connective Portfolio Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth $715,000. 92.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Guardant Health Company Profile

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.