Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Wolfe Research

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wolfe Research to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

GH has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Leerink Partners boosted their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Piper Sandler set a $127.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $136.37.

Guardant Health Price Performance

GH opened at $130.17 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.40 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $95.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.18. Guardant Health has a 1 year low of $40.35 and a 1 year high of $133.97.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John G. Saia sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.51, for a total value of $2,130,200.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 45,950 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,894,134.50. The trade was a 30.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Ian T. Clark sold 6,876 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.90, for a total value of $735,044.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,975 shares in the company, valued at $318,027.50. This represents a 69.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 332,244 shares of company stock worth $36,156,026 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Guardant Health by 19.5% in the 3rd 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 period. Eastern Bank raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. First Pacific Financial raised its stake in Guardant Health by 33.1% in the 1st 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 period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its stake in Guardant Health by 3.2% in the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Xponance LLC raised its stake in Guardant Health by 2.1% in the 4th 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 period. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by 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.