Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fifteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.60.

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. BTIG Research upped their price objective on Guardant Health from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Leerink Partners lowered their price target on Guardant Health from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

NASDAQ GH opened at $30.68 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.85, a current ratio of 6.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.70. Guardant Health has a twelve month low of $15.81 and a twelve month high of $37.04. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.71. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.24 and a beta of 1.11.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.88) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.55) by ($0.33). Guardant Health had a negative net margin of 74.02% and a negative return on equity of 1,200.44%. The company had revenue of $191.48 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $170.49 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.73) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Guardant Health will post -3.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 2,896 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.90, for a total transaction of $86,590.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,648 shares in the company, valued at $228,675.20. This trade represents a 27.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GH. JNBA Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the second quarter worth approximately $71,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

About Guardant Health

Guardant Health, Inc, a precision oncology company, provides blood and tissue tests, data sets, and analytics in the United States and internationally. The company provides Guardant360; Guardant360 LDT; Guardant360 CDx Test; Guardant360 Response Test; Guardant360 TissueNext Test; GuardantINFINITY Test; GuardantConnect, an integrated software-based solution designed for clinical and biopharmaceutical customers to connect patients tested with assays with actionable alterations with potentially relevant clinical studies; GuardantOMNI Test for advanced stage cancer; and GuardantINFORM, an in-silico research platform for tumor evolution and treatment resistance across various biomarker-driven cancers.