Short Interest in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Decreases By 15.0%

Key Points

• Short interest fell 15.0% in April to 11,642,109 shares (about 9.5% of shares short) with a days-to-cover ratio of 5.1.
• Wall Street remains largely positive—19 Buy ratings and a consensus "Moderate Buy" with a consensus target of $128.63—even as the company reports negative EPS alongside 39.4% year-over-year revenue growth.
• Insiders sold 8,596 shares (~$775,767) last quarter, while institutional investors own roughly 92.6% of the stock.

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 11,642,109 shares, a drop of 15.0% from the March 31st total of 13,696,676 shares. Approximately 9.5% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,270,198 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Guardant Health Stock Up 0.6%

Guardant Health stock traded up $0.54 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $87.62. 1,109,274 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,056,651. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.62 billion, a PE ratio of -26.47 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.91. Guardant Health has a 52 week low of $36.36 and a 52 week high of $120.74.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $269.74 million. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 39.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.62) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Guardant Health will post -2.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on GH. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Evercore set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $128.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Guardant Health

In other news, Director Musa Tariq sold 348 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.09, for a total value of $30,655.32. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,394 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $739,427.46. This trade represents a 3.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total transaction of $261,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 43,601 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,031.04. This trade represents a 6.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 8,596 shares of company stock worth $775,767 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 6.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Guardant Health by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,160,768 shares of the company's stock worth $1,242,101,000 after buying an additional 251,939 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in 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 worth $575,670,000 after buying an additional 1,414,441 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 6.6% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,127,692 shares of the company's stock valued at $320,378,000 after purchasing an additional 317,906 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 14.9% in the fourth 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Guardant Health by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,213,657 shares of the company's stock valued at $328,297,000 after purchasing an additional 277,001 shares during the last quarter. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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