Legato Capital Management LLC Sells 16,084 Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Legato Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) by 59.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,835 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,084 shares during the quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Guardant Health were worth $677,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Guardant Health by 56.5% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 71,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,012,000 after acquiring an additional 25,831 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the first quarter worth $274,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 40.5% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 38,622 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,010,000 after purchasing an additional 11,125 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the second quarter valued at $209,000. Finally, Strs Ohio raised its position in Guardant Health by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 20,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,062,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of GH opened at $93.02 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $12.20 billion, a PE ratio of -28.10 and a beta of 1.67. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.88 and a 52-week high of $120.74. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $105.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $88.45.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.62) earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $131,250.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 797 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $83,685. This represents a 61.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Darya Chudova sold 5,451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.04, for a total value of $567,122.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 7,012 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,528.48. This represents a 43.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 379,344 shares of company stock valued at $39,734,840. 6.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Guardant Health from $105.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup increased 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. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.57.

Guardant Health 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.