Ian Clark Sells 6,876 Shares of Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Stock

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Director Ian Clark sold 6,876 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.90, for a total transaction of $735,044.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $318,027.50. This trade represents a 69.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of Guardant Health stock traded up $0.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $118.95. 2,633,856 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,090,416. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.36 and a 12 month high of $121.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $90.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.79. The company has a market capitalization of $15.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.09 and a beta of 1.48.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The firm 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) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.92 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GH shares. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Guardant Health in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Leerink Partners raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Evercore set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Guardant Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.00.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 19.5% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank increased its holdings in Guardant Health by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 2,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. First Pacific Financial increased its holdings in Guardant Health by 33.1% in the 1st quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 559 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its stake in Guardant Health by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 4,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Finally, Xponance LLC raised its stake in Guardant Health by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 9,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $984,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.