Musa Tariq Sells 116 Shares of Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Stock

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Director Musa Tariq sold 116 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.45, for a total value of $18,148.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 11,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,770,388.20. The trade was a 1.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Musa Tariq also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 22nd, Musa Tariq sold 1,951 shares of Guardant Health stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.16, for a total transaction of $255,893.16.
• On Tuesday, June 16th, Musa Tariq sold 116 shares of Guardant Health stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.19, for a total value of $15,102.04.

Guardant Health Stock Down 1.0%

GH traded down $1.55 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $160.12. 1,201,904 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,312,219. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 1-year low of $53.40 and a 1-year high of $176.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $151.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $117.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -45.88 and a beta of 1.60.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.76) by $0.34. The business had revenue of $334.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.23 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.44) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho lifted their price target on Guardant Health from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.78.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 56.5% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 71,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 25,831 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the first quarter valued at approximately $274,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Guardant Health by 15.8% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 77,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,023,000 after acquiring an additional 10,538 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Guardant Health by 9.4% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 632,630 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,922,000 after acquiring an additional 54,284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in Guardant Health by 56.4% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 111,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,800,000 after acquiring an additional 40,209 shares during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.