Guardant Health Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:GH)

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 4,097 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 78% compared to the average volume of 2,301 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $34.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective (up from $39.00) on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GH. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $58,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in Guardant Health by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,929 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of GH stock opened at $42.89 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $42.83 and its 200-day moving average is $32.74. The stock has a market cap of $5.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.05 and a beta of 1.50. Guardant Health has a 52-week low of $15.81 and a 52-week high of $50.89.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported ($0.90) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.75) by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $201.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $192.50 million. Guardant Health had a negative net margin of 59.05% and a negative return on equity of 19,157.20%. Sell-side analysts predict that Guardant Health will post -2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Guardant Health

Guardant Health, Inc, a precision oncology company, provides blood and tissue tests, data sets, and analytics in the United States and internationally. The company provides Guardant360; Guardant360 LDT; Guardant360 CDx Test; Guardant360 Response Test; Guardant360 TissueNext Test; GuardantINFINITY Test; GuardantConnect, an integrated software-based solution designed for clinical and biopharmaceutical customers to connect patients tested with assays with actionable alterations with potentially relevant clinical studies; GuardantOMNI Test for advanced stage cancer; and GuardantINFORM, an in-silico research platform for tumor evolution and treatment resistance across various biomarker-driven cancers.