Northern Trust Corp Sells 251,587 Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH)

Northern Trust Corp lessened its holdings in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) by 18.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,141,992 shares of the company’s stock after selling 251,587 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp’s holdings in Guardant Health were worth $34,888,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,052,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $368,205,000 after buying an additional 350,606 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in Guardant Health by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,464,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,732,000 after acquiring an additional 238,037 shares in the last quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 1,464,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,732,000 after acquiring an additional 197,729 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at $36,438,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,016,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,055,000 after purchasing an additional 13,395 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on GH shares. Barclays boosted their target price on Guardant Health from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Guardant Health from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Guardant Health from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.32.

Guardant Health Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:GH opened at $41.72 on Friday. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 1-year low of $20.14 and a 1-year high of $52.92. The stock has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.72 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.84.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported ($0.49) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.57) by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $203.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.91 million. Guardant Health had a negative return on equity of 19,157.20% and a negative net margin of 59.05%. The company’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.46) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Guardant Health news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 106,784 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.01, for a total value of $5,233,483.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,202,672 shares in the company, valued at $107,952,954.72. The trade was a 4.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 107,132 shares of company stock valued at $5,249,355 over the last quarter. 5.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.