Legal & General Group Plc Invests $20.86 Million in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 139,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,865,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. TrinityBridge Ltd purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the second quarter worth approximately $45,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, EFG International AG acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Trading Down 4.2%

NASDAQ:GH opened at $161.50 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.67 billion, a P/E ratio of -46.27 and a beta of 1.60. Guardant Health, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.40 and a twelve month high of $176.58. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $157.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $120.75.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.76) by $0.34. The business had revenue of $334.98 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $314.23 million. The firm’s revenue was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.44) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Guardant Health news, Director Ian T. Clark sold 14,180 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.92, for a total value of $2,253,485.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $472,787. This trade represents a 82.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 143,028 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.54, for a total value of $21,674,463.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,881,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $285,097,657.44. This trade represents a 7.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 548,318 shares of company stock valued at $82,501,873 in the last 90 days. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GH shares. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $170.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.78.

Guardant Health 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.