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

Key Points

• Unusually high bearish options activity: Traders purchased 4,283 put options on Guardant Health, about 311% above typical volume.
• Strong quarterly results: Guardant reported a quarterly loss of $0.42 per share, beating estimates by $0.34, while revenue reached $334.98 million, up 44.3% year over year and above expectations.
• Analysts remain broadly optimistic: The stock has a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $183.78, although insiders have sold substantial shares and GH declined to $162.24 in Friday trading.

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 4,283 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 311% compared to the typical volume of 1,043 put options.

Guardant Health Stock Performance

Shares of GH stock traded down $6.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $162.24. The company had a trading volume of 729,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,287,866. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $156.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.47. The firm has a market cap of $21.77 billion, a PE ratio of -46.49 and a beta of 1.60. Guardant Health has a one year low of $53.40 and a one year high of $176.58.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported ($0.42) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.76) by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $334.98 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $314.23 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.44) EPS. The business's revenue was up 44.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Guardant Health will post -2.98 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Guardant Health news, insider Chris Freeman sold 63,605 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.58, for a total transaction of $10,786,135.90. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 65,374 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,086,122.92. This represents a 49.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Amirali Talasaz sold 143,028 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.54, for a total transaction of $21,674,463.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,881,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at $285,097,657.44. This represents a 7.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 548,318 shares of company stock worth $82,501,873. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in shares of Guardant Health by 16,079.2% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 21,129,925 shares of the company's stock worth $3,170,123,000 after purchasing an additional 20,999,326 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 3rd quarter worth $114,421,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Guardant Health by 33.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,636,078 shares of the company's stock worth $575,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,414,441 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter valued at $208,592,000. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter worth about $196,737,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GH. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Guardant Health from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Guardant Health from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $183.78.

Guardant Health Company Profile

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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