Wolfe Research Upgrades Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) to Strong-Buy

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) was upgraded by research analysts at Wolfe Research to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

GH has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on Guardant Health in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Evercore raised shares of Guardant Health from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $136.37.

Guardant Health Price Performance

Shares of GH stock opened at $130.17 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $100.18. Guardant Health has a 1 year low of $40.35 and a 1 year high of $133.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.40 and a beta of 1.61.

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In related news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 210,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.89, for a total transaction of $23,076,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,886,504 shares in the company, valued at $207,307,924.56. The trade was a 10.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Terilyn J. Monroe sold 3,832 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.68, for a total transaction of $355,149.76. Following the transaction, the insider owned 20,990 shares in the company, valued at $1,945,353.20. The trade was a 15.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 332,244 shares of company stock worth $36,156,026 in the last three months. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 164.7% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.