Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH)

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 4,283 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 311% compared to the average volume of 1,043 put options.

Guardant Health Price Performance

Guardant Health stock traded down $6.28 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $162.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 729,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,287,866. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $156.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $120.47. Guardant Health has a 52-week low of $53.40 and a 52-week high of $176.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -46.49 and a beta of 1.60.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on GH shares. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Guardant Health from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Friday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $130.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $135.00 to $193.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $183.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Guardant Health news, 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 value of $7,645,056.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 22,979 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,794,292.48. This represents a 66.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Medina Manuel Hidalgo sold 1,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.24, for a total transaction of $279,208.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,556 shares in the company, valued at approximately $748,277.44. The trade was a 27.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 548,318 shares of company stock worth $82,501,873 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. ABS Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth $345,069,000. TrinityBridge Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Guardant Health during the second quarter worth about $45,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Guardant Health by 164.7% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $59,000. 92.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.