Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 13,696,676 shares, an increase of 19.6% from the March 15th total of 11,452,421 shares. Currently, 11.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,830,219 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

GH stock traded up $4.66 on Friday, reaching $90.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,540,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,080,464. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.39. Guardant Health has a 12-month low of $36.36 and a 12-month high of $120.74. The firm has a market cap of $11.85 billion, a PE ratio of -27.30 and a beta of 1.64.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.54, for a total transaction of $119,002.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $109,207.22. This represents a 52.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Terilyn J. Monroe sold 3,832 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.68, for a total value of $355,149.76. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 20,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,945,353.20. This trade represents a 15.44% decrease in their position. 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,167 shares of company stock worth $1,753,633. 6.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Guardant Health by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,242,101,000 after buying an additional 251,939 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Guardant Health by 33.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $575,670,000 after buying an additional 1,414,441 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in Guardant Health by 6.6% during the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,378,000 after buying an additional 317,906 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Guardant Health by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,361,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $343,348,000 after buying an additional 435,232 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Guardant Health by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,213,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,297,000 after buying an additional 277,001 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GH shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Leerink Partners increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup raised their price target on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Evercore set a $110.00 price target on Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 20th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Guardant Health has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $125.20.

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.