Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Buys New Position in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $839,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth $2,461,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth $196,737,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth $1,971,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the second quarter valued at $641,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the second quarter valued at $1,118,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Guardant Health from $135.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Stephens boosted their price objective on Guardant Health from $170.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $150.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Guardant Health currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $183.78.

Guardant Health Stock Up 1.1%

NASDAQ GH opened at $164.92 on Wednesday. Guardant Health, Inc. has a twelve month low of $53.40 and a twelve month high of $176.58. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $155.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $119.49. The firm has a market cap of $22.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -47.25 and a beta of 1.60.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.76) by $0.34. The business had revenue of $334.98 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $314.23 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.44) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.24, for a total value of $279,208.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $748,277.44. The trade was a 27.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Terilyn J. Monroe sold 46,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.12, for a total transaction of $7,645,056.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 22,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,794,292.48. This represents a 66.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 549,318 shares of company stock valued at $82,631,933. Company insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health 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.