Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Trading Up 7.6% – Time to Buy?

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) shares were up 7.6% on Monday . The company traded as high as $36.57 and last traded at $36.32. 530,169 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 1,219,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.76.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $40.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Leerink Partners reduced their target price on Guardant Health from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.60.

Guardant Health Stock Up 1.2 %

The stock has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.63 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day moving average of $32.04 and a 200 day moving average of $28.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.70, a current ratio of 6.22 and a quick ratio of 5.85.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.88) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.55) by ($0.33). Guardant Health had a negative return on equity of 1,200.44% and a negative net margin of 74.02%. The business had revenue of $191.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.49 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.73) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Guardant Health news, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 2,896 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.90, for a total value of $86,590.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $228,675.20. The trade was a 27.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Musa Tariq sold 2,320 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $81,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $93,660. This represents a 46.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,432 shares of company stock valued at $175,423 over the last 90 days. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GH. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in Guardant Health during the third quarter worth about $15,624,000. Exome Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC now owns 89,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,060,000 after buying an additional 10,800 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Guardant Health by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,822,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,754,000 after buying an additional 29,686 shares in the last quarter. Pier Capital LLC grew its position in Guardant Health by 36.7% in the third quarter. Pier Capital LLC now owns 158,429 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,634,000 after acquiring an additional 42,575 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Guardant Health by 188.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,127,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,325,000 after acquiring an additional 6,618,785 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

About Guardant Health

Guardant Health, Inc, a precision oncology company, provides blood and tissue tests, data sets, and analytics in the United States and internationally. The company provides Guardant360; Guardant360 LDT; Guardant360 CDx Test; Guardant360 Response Test; Guardant360 TissueNext Test; GuardantINFINITY Test; GuardantConnect, an integrated software-based solution designed for clinical and biopharmaceutical customers to connect patients tested with assays with actionable alterations with potentially relevant clinical studies; GuardantOMNI Test for advanced stage cancer; and GuardantINFORM, an in-silico research platform for tumor evolution and treatment resistance across various biomarker-driven cancers.