Comerica Bank Purchases 17,931 Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Comerica Bank increased its position in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) by 48.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,597 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,931 shares during the quarter. Comerica Bank’s holdings in Guardant Health were worth $5,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in Guardant Health by 153.5% during the 3rd quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 768 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on GH shares. Mizuho set a $135.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Evercore set a $110.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $128.63.

Guardant Health Price Performance

GH stock opened at $87.08 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $89.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $95.91. The company has a market capitalization of $11.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -26.31 and a beta of 1.64. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.36 and a 12 month high of $120.74.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.74 million. Guardant Health’s revenue was up 39.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.62) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In other news, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,795,031.04. This represents a 6.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $109,207.22. This trade represents a 52.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 8,596 shares of company stock valued at $775,767 over the last quarter. Insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

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.