Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,790,000 shares, a decrease of 5.6% from the December 15th total of 8,250,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,810,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.3 days.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

GH opened at $36.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.65 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.95. Guardant Health has a twelve month low of $15.81 and a twelve month high of $39.29.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.88) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.55) by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $191.48 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.49 million. Guardant Health had a negative return on equity of 1,200.44% and a negative net margin of 74.02%. Guardant Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.73) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Guardant Health will post -3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $40.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Leerink Partners reduced their price target on Guardant Health from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $40.60.

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, Director Musa Tariq sold 2,320 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 2,896 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.90, for a total value of $86,590.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,648 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $228,675.20. The trade was a 27.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,432 shares of company stock valued at $175,423 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GH. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Guardant Health by 188.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,127,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,325,000 after acquiring an additional 6,618,785 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 1,282.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,226,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,482 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 233.5% in the 3rd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 1,512,694 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,701,000 after purchasing an additional 1,059,104 shares during the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Guardant Health in the third quarter valued at about $21,389,000. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health in the third quarter valued at about $15,624,000. Institutional investors 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.