Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Sanford C. Bernstein

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) was upgraded by equities researchers at Sanford C. Bernstein to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on GH. BTIG Research set a $160.00 price objective on Guardant Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, June 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group set a $150.00 price target on Guardant Health in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore raised Guardant Health from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $143.68.

Guardant Health Trading Up 4.4%

GH stock opened at $149.22 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $112.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.02. Guardant Health has a 1 year low of $40.35 and a 1 year high of $151.85. The stock has a market cap of $19.79 billion, a PE ratio of -44.02 and a beta of 1.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Guardant Health news, Director Myrtle S. Potter sold 1,556 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.16, for a total value of $204,084.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 20,971 shares in the company, valued at $2,750,556.36. This trade represents a 6.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.62, for a total value of $257,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 47,509 shares in the company, valued at $6,110,607.58. This trade represents a 4.04% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 452,513 shares of company stock valued at $51,608,916 in the last quarter. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Guardant Health by 164.7% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Guardant Health Company 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.