Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 11,642,109 shares, a decrease of 15.0% from the March 31st total of 13,696,676 shares. Currently, 9.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,270,198 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Guardant Health Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Guardant Health stock opened at $87.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.61 billion, a PE ratio of -26.47 and a beta of 1.49. The business has a 50 day moving average of $89.30 and a 200 day moving average of $96.14. Guardant Health has a 52 week low of $36.36 and a 52 week high of $120.74.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $281.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.62) EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Guardant Health will post -2.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.54, for a total value of $119,002.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $109,207.22. This represents a 52.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total value of $261,120.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 43,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,795,031.04. This trade represents a 6.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 8,596 shares of company stock worth $775,767 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,242,101,000 after purchasing an additional 251,939 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised 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 in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 6.6% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,378,000 after purchasing an additional 317,906 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,361,547 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,348,000 after purchasing an additional 435,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,213,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $328,297,000 after purchasing an additional 277,001 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GH shares. Leerink Partners increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, BTIG Research increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $128.63.

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.