Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) Shares Gap Down Following Insider Selling

Key Points

• Guardant Health shares dropped significantly after CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 300,000 shares, leading to a market opening at $55.22 from a previous close of $56.80.
• Despite the insider selling, several analysts have raised their price targets for the stock, reflecting a generally positive outlook, with an average consensus target at $58.24.
• Guardant Health reported a revenue increase of 31% year-over-year, achieving $232.09 million during its last quarter, along with a narrower loss than expected.

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Friday following insider selling activity. The stock had previously closed at $56.80, but opened at $55.22. Guardant Health shares last traded at $55.25, with a volume of 213,262 shares.

Specifically, CEO Helmy Eltoukhy sold 300,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.45, for a total value of $17,835,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,123,499 shares in the company, valued at approximately $126,242,015.55. This trade represents a 12.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. BTIG Research raised their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective 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. Mizuho raised their target price on Guardant Health from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Guardant Health to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and seventeen have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Guardant Health currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $58.24.

Guardant Health Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $6.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.44 and a beta of 1.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $53.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.55.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.44) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.52) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $232.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.84) earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 31.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Guardant Health has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GH. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in Guardant Health by 50.5% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 635 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Guardant Health by 120.1% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 612 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Guardant Health by 358.4% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 706 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in Guardant Health during the first quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in Guardant Health during the fourth quarter worth about $61,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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