Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Free Report) by 4,838.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 498,129 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 488,043 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.40% of Guardant Health worth $21,220,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GH. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 43.5% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,696 shares of the company's stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Guardant Health by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,016,533 shares of the company's stock worth $31,055,000 after acquiring an additional 13,395 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in Guardant Health by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 35,639 shares of the company's stock worth $1,089,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Guardant Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,211,000. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In other Guardant Health news, Director Ian T. Clark sold 6,672 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.38, for a total transaction of $322,791.36. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,851 shares in the company, valued at approximately $476,591.38. This represents a 40.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Myrtle S. Potter sold 2,626 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total value of $130,512.20. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,180 shares in the company, valued at $903,546. The trade was a 12.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 342,274 shares of company stock worth $17,080,589. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company's stock.

Guardant Health Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of GH stock traded down $1.04 on Friday, reaching $50.25. The company had a trading volume of 1,195,207 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,171,123. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.23 billion, a PE ratio of -14.82 and a beta of 1.44. Guardant Health, Inc. has a one year low of $20.14 and a one year high of $53.42. The business's 50-day moving average is $45.70 and its 200 day moving average is $43.78.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported ($0.49) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.57) by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $203.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.46) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on GH. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Monday, May 5th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (up from $50.00) on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $53.76.

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.