Guardant Health, Inc. $GH Position Cut by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA trimmed its holdings in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) by 21.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 237,481 shares of the company’s stock after selling 65,841 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 0.19% of Guardant Health worth $24,256,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GH. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $114,421,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,523,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Guardant Health by 26.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,926,315 shares of the company’s stock worth $182,836,000 after buying an additional 606,368 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in Guardant Health by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,378,000 after buying an additional 317,906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its holdings in Guardant Health by 124.3% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 570,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,620,000 after buying an additional 315,896 shares in the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on GH. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $129.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Mizuho set a $135.00 target price on Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird began coverage on Guardant Health in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $125.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total value of $261,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 43,601 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,031.04. This represents a 6.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.54, for a total value of $119,002.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $109,207.22. The trade was a 52.15% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 17,051 shares of company stock worth $1,743,792 over the last three months. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GH opened at $84.86 on Thursday. Guardant Health, Inc. has a one year low of $36.36 and a one year high of $120.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $93.02 and a 200-day moving average of $94.25. The company has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a PE ratio of -25.64 and a beta of 1.64.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $281.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.62) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 39.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Guardant Health

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.