Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Short Interest Down 5.6% in December

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Guardant Health news, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 2,896 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was 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 directly owns 7,648 shares in the company, valued at $228,675.20. This represents a 27.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Musa Tariq sold 2,320 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $81,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $93,660. This represents a 46.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 5,432 shares of company stock worth $175,423. 5.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guardant Health

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JNBA Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the third quarter valued at $34,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the second quarter valued at $44,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth about $71,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 168.1% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 2,153 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of GH opened at $36.66 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.96. Guardant Health has a 1 year low of $15.81 and a 1 year high of $39.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.53 billion, a PE ratio of -8.65 and a beta of 1.28.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.88) EPS 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 business had revenue of $191.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $170.49 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.73) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 33.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Guardant Health will post -3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

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.