Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Acquires New Position in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 173,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.13% of Guardant Health as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. TrinityBridge Ltd bought a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the second quarter worth approximately $45,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Guardant Health by 164.7% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, EFG International AG purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. 92.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Guardant Health

In related news, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.30, for a total transaction of $12,630,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,012,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $254,231,669.70. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 143,028 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.54, for a total value of $21,674,463.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,881,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $285,097,657.44. This represents a 7.07% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 548,318 shares of company stock worth $82,501,873. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GH has been the topic of several analyst reports. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Guardant Health from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Stephens upped their price target on Guardant Health from $170.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on Guardant Health from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Guardant Health in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $150.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $183.78.

Guardant Health Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of Guardant Health stock opened at $161.50 on Friday. Guardant Health, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.40 and a twelve month high of $176.58. The company’s 50 day moving average is $157.49 and its 200 day moving average is $120.75. The company has a market cap of $21.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -46.27 and a beta of 1.60.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.76) by $0.34. The company had revenue of $334.98 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $314.23 million. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.44) EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 EPS for the current fiscal 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.