Stifel Nicolaus Issues Positive Forecast for Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Stock Price

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) had its price target lifted by Stifel Nicolaus from $45.00 to $53.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $36.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Guardant Health from $40.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on Guardant Health in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $60.00 price target on the stock. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Guardant Health has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $44.78.

Guardant Health Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GH opened at $42.87 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $40.19 and its 200 day moving average is $31.59. Guardant Health has a 1 year low of $15.81 and a 1 year high of $50.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.11 and a beta of 1.32.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported ($0.90) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.75) by ($0.15). Guardant Health had a negative net margin of 74.02% and a negative return on equity of 1,200.44%. The business had revenue of $201.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $192.50 million. On average, analysts expect that Guardant Health will post -3.39 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Musa Tariq sold 2,320 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $81,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,676 shares in the company, valued at $93,660. This trade represents a 46.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 2,768 shares of company stock valued at $98,798 over the last quarter. 5.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the third quarter worth $15,624,000. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at $206,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Guardant Health by 54.6% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 195,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,473,000 after purchasing an additional 68,883 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Guardant Health by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,822,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,754,000 after purchasing an additional 29,686 shares during the period. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at $377,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Guardant Health Company Profile

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.