Fifth Third Bancorp Raises Stock Holdings in Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Key Points

• Fifth Third Bancorp sharply increased its Guardant Health stake in Q1, boosting holdings by 1,344.7% to 59,303 shares valued at about $5.48 million.
• Several other major institutional investors also raised positions, and institutions now own 92.6% of Guardant Health’s stock.
• Insiders have been selling shares recently, including CEO Helmy Eltoukhy and CFO Michael Brian Bell, while analysts remain mostly positive with a Moderate Buy consensus and a target price around $160.04.

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Free Report) by 1,344.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 59,303 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 55,198 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp's holdings in Guardant Health were worth $5,478,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GH. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Guardant Health by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,242,101,000 after acquiring an additional 251,939 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 33.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company's stock valued at $575,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,414,441 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,361,547 shares of the company's stock valued at $343,348,000 after purchasing an additional 435,232 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,213,657 shares of the company's stock worth $328,297,000 after purchasing an additional 277,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Guardant Health by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,441,730 shares of the company's stock worth $249,398,000 after purchasing an additional 72,162 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 100,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.30, for a total transaction of $12,630,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,012,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $254,231,669.70. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.62, for a total value of $257,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 47,509 shares in the company, valued at $6,110,607.58. This trade represents a 4.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 708,565 shares of company stock worth $90,556,597 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Guardant Health in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $185.00 target price on the stock. BTIG Research increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, 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 target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $160.04.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GH opened at $155.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.67 billion, a PE ratio of -45.98 and a beta of 1.59. Guardant Health, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.35 and a fifty-two week high of $174.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $134.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $110.26.

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.

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