IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd Purchases Shares of 9,004 Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH)

Key Points

• IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd invested approximately $384,000 to acquire 9,004 shares of Guardant Health, expanding its presence in the company during the first quarter.
• Guardant Health reported a 31% year-over-year revenue growth for the last quarter, with revenue coming in at $232.09 million, exceeding analysts' expectations.
• Several analysts have raised their target prices for Guardant Health shares, with an average target of $54.95 and an overall rating of "Buy" from 19 analysts.

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 9,004 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $384,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the first quarter worth about $232,000. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in Guardant Health by 25.1% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 49,927 shares of the company's stock worth $1,525,000 after buying an additional 10,006 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the first quarter worth about $866,000. Fifth Third Bancorp acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the first quarter worth about $279,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth about $2,211,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Guardant Health

In other news, Director Myrtle S. Potter sold 2,626 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total value of $130,512.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 18,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $903,546. The trade was a 12.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Musa Tariq sold 3,213 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.47, for a total transaction of $158,947.11. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,190 shares of the company's stock, valued at $355,689.30. The trade was a 30.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 235,516 shares of company stock valued at $11,848,754. Insiders own 6.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised shares of Guardant Health to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on shares of Guardant Health from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $57.50.

Guardant Health Price Performance

Shares of GH traded up $3.84 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $54.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,809,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,816,110. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $48.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.19 and a beta of 1.43. Guardant Health, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.14 and a fifty-two week high of $54.62.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.44) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.52) by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $232.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $211.19 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.84) earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 31.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Guardant Health, Inc. 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.