Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Shares Up 9.1% – Should You Buy?

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) shot up 9.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $110.77 and last traded at $111.1610. 696,798 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 1,386,638 shares. The stock had previously closed at $101.87.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $85.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Guardant Health from $63.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Guardant Health from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Twenty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.71.

Guardant Health Trading Up 7.0%

The company has a market cap of $13.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.00 and a beta of 1.58. The business has a fifty day moving average of $99.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.77.

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

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 90,565 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.82, for a total transaction of $9,402,458.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,047,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $212,534,386.26. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Terilyn J. Monroe sold 55,167 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.97, for a total value of $5,846,046.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 20,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,216,892.40. This trade represents a 72.51% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 426,663 shares of company stock valued at $44,508,069 in the last three months. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 3rd quarter worth $114,421,000. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Guardant Health by 100.4% during the second quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 2,823,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,935,000 after purchasing an additional 1,414,381 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,136,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 78.2% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,319,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,730,000 after buying an additional 1,018,144 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,558,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,184,000 after buying an additional 763,834 shares during the last quarter. 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.