Musa Tariq Sells 116 Shares of Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Stock

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Director Musa Tariq sold 116 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.45, for a total transaction of $18,148.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 11,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,770,388.20. This trade represents a 1.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Musa Tariq also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 22nd, Musa Tariq sold 1,951 shares of Guardant Health stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.16, for a total transaction of $255,893.16.
• On Tuesday, June 16th, Musa Tariq sold 116 shares of Guardant Health stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.19, for a total transaction of $15,102.04.

Guardant Health Price Performance

NASDAQ:GH opened at $163.34 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $152.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.95. The firm has a market cap of $21.92 billion, a PE ratio of -46.80 and a beta of 1.60. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.40 and a 1-year high of $176.58.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.76) by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $334.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.23 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.44) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GH. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Guardant Health by 56.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 71,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,012,000 after acquiring an additional 25,831 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 1st quarter valued at about $274,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 15.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 77,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,023,000 after purchasing an additional 10,538 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Guardant Health by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 632,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,922,000 after purchasing an additional 54,284 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 56.4% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 111,445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,800,000 after buying an additional 40,209 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GH. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Friday, July 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Guardant Health from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Guardant Health from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.78.

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.