Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) CEO Amirali Talasaz Sells 210,000 Shares

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 210,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.89, for a total value of $23,076,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,886,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $207,307,924.56. This trade represents a 10.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Amirali Talasaz also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 12th, Amirali Talasaz sold 50,000 shares of Guardant Health stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.32, for a total value of $5,016,000.00.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

NASDAQ GH opened at $118.95 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $91.15 and a 200-day moving average of $98.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -35.09 and a beta of 1.48. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.36 and a 52 week high of $121.01.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its quarterly 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 analyst estimates of $269.74 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.62) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on GH shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Leerink Partners raised their price target on Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup raised their price target on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $127.00 price target on Guardant Health in a research report on Thursday. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Emerald Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 24.8% during the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 873,203 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,558,000 after acquiring an additional 173,281 shares in the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC bought a new position in Guardant Health during the third quarter worth about $1,554,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 54.4% during the third quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 301,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,835,000 after acquiring an additional 106,263 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 10.4% during the third quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 705,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,716,000 after acquiring an additional 66,617 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its holdings in Guardant Health by 57.8% during the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 305,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,066,000 after acquiring an additional 111,822 shares in the last quarter. 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.