Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $124.00 and last traded at $121.79, with a volume of 235520 shares. The stock had previously closed at $119.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GH. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $129.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Evercore set a $110.00 price target on Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.53.

Guardant Health Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $16.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.43 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $92.53 and its 200-day moving average is $99.26.

Insider Transactions at Guardant Health

In other news, Director Ian T. Clark sold 6,876 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.90, for a total value of $735,044.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $318,027.50. The trade was a 69.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider John G. Saia sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.51, for a total value of $2,130,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 45,950 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,894,134.50. The trade was a 30.33% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 321,244 shares of company stock worth $34,775,166. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of GH. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 3rd quarter valued at $114,421,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Guardant Health by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,414,441 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter worth $128,499,000. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Guardant Health by 674.5% in the fourth quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC now owns 851,958 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,019,000 after purchasing an additional 741,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Guardant Health by 26.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,926,315 shares of the company’s stock valued at $182,836,000 after purchasing an additional 606,368 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% 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.