Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Upgraded to Moderate Buy at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) to a moderate buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also commented on GH. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, June 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $165.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.95.

Guardant Health Price Performance

NASDAQ:GH opened at $131.62 on Thursday. Guardant Health has a one year low of $40.35 and a one year high of $134.28. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -38.83 and a beta of 1.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Guardant Health news, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 100,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.30, for a total value of $12,630,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,012,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $254,231,669.70. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Meghan V. Joyce sold 10,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.98, for a total transaction of $1,269,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 11,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,420,017.34. This trade represents a 47.21% 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 452,238 shares of company stock valued at $51,425,612. 5.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GH. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the third quarter worth about $114,421,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,670,000 after buying an additional 1,414,441 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter worth about $128,499,000. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 674.5% in the fourth quarter. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC now owns 851,958 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,019,000 after buying an additional 741,958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 26.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.