Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) CEO Amirali Talasaz Sells 50,000 Shares

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $5,016,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,096,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,321,281.28. This trade represents a 2.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Guardant Health Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ:GH traded down $1.47 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $98.47. The stock had a trading volume of 1,640,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,054,939. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.36 and a 1-year high of $120.74. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $97.53. The company has a market cap of $13.06 billion, a PE ratio of -29.05 and a beta of 1.48.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $269.74 million. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 39.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.62) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 22.2% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 9,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $870,000 after buying an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $41,000. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 57.3% in the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 169,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,631,000 after acquiring an additional 61,800 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Guardant Health by 140.5% during the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,537 shares of the company’s stock valued at $696,000 after acquiring an additional 4,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of Guardant Health by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 222,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,515,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GH. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $175.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on Guardant Health from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Guardant Health currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.42.

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.