The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys New Stake in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,390,337 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,592,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 1.04% of Guardant Health as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 164.7% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Ascentis Independent Advisors purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the first quarter worth about $38,000. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the first quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, EFG International AG bought a new stake in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. BTIG Research lifted their target price on Guardant Health from $190.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group set a $150.00 target price on Guardant Health in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Bank of America increased their price target on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Guardant Health from $150.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.78.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GH opened at $163.18 on Tuesday. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 52-week low of $53.40 and a 52-week high of $176.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -46.76 and a beta of 1.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $154.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $119.07.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.23 million. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.44) EPS. Analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 143,028 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.54, for a total transaction of $21,674,463.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,881,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $285,097,657.44. The trade was a 7.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Chris Freeman sold 63,605 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.58, for a total transaction of $10,786,135.90. Following the transaction, the insider owned 65,374 shares in the company, valued at $11,086,122.92. The trade was a 49.31% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 559,318 shares of company stock worth $83,882,733 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Company 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.