Short Interest in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Expands By 19.6%

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 13,696,676 shares, a growth of 19.6% from the March 15th total of 11,452,421 shares. Currently, 11.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,830,219 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GH. Evercore set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 20th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $129.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $125.20.

Guardant Health Stock Up 5.4%

NASDAQ:GH opened at $90.36 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.85 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.30 and a beta of 1.64. Guardant Health has a fifty-two week low of $36.36 and a fifty-two week high of $120.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $92.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $94.61.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.62) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Guardant Health will post -2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In related news, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director owned 1,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $109,207.22. This represents a 52.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total transaction of $261,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 43,601 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,031.04. The trade was a 6.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 17,167 shares of company stock valued at $1,753,633 over the last three months. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 164.7% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

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.