Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at The Goldman Sachs Group

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) was upgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

GH has been the topic of several other reports. Leerink Partners raised their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Guardant Health in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $137.80.

Guardant Health Trading Down 5.6%

Shares of Guardant Health stock opened at $125.61 on Friday. Guardant Health has a 1 year low of $40.35 and a 1 year high of $134.28. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $99.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.08. The company has a market cap of $16.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -37.05 and a beta of 1.61.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 210,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.89, for a total transaction of $23,076,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,886,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $207,307,924.56. The trade was a 10.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Steve E. Krognes sold 9,294 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.51, for a total transaction of $1,231,547.94. Following the sale, the director directly owned 10,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,354,517.22. This trade represents a 47.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 350,238 shares of company stock valued at $38,538,372. Insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Guardant Health by 164.7% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.