Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Purchases Shares of 36,286 Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 36,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,444,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter valued at about $114,421,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Guardant Health by 33.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,414,441 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $208,592,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Guardant Health in the second quarter valued at approximately $196,737,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $128,499,000. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $130.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $170.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Guardant Health currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $183.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 37,500 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.16, for a total transaction of $6,343,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 37,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,343,500. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ian T. Clark sold 14,180 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.92, for a total transaction of $2,253,485.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $472,787. The trade was a 82.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 529,024 shares of company stock valued at $80,000,525 over the last three months. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Guardant Health Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of Guardant Health stock opened at $163.06 on Thursday. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 12 month low of $53.40 and a 12 month high of $176.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -46.72 and a beta of 1.57. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $159.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.07.

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

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.