Fidelity Management & Research Co recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Guardant Health Inc. (NASDAQ:GH). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 4.72% to 13.61 million shares with purchase of 0.61 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 13.28% valued currently at $420.32 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.12 million to 8.9 million shares. And Capital Research & Management Co has lifted its position by 27.59% or 1.7 million shares – to 7.85 million shares.
With over 3.23 million Guardant Health Inc. (GH) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $25.01 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $80.76 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -56.86% and its price on 03/10/23 lost nearly -7.16%. Currently, there are 102.52M common shares owned by the public and among those 97.63M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 20 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for GH have a consensus price objective of $55.94. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $90.00 and a low of $33.00. The average price target is 55.29% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 24.21% over that period. But an upside of 72.21% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $55.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 51 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 31 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 49,200 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 20 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 28,803 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Guardant Health Inc. are American Funds Growth Fund of Ame, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund. American Funds Growth Fund of Ame owns 3.72 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $114.78 million. The company bought an additional 0.78 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.63% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 29709.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 2.98 million shares valued at over $91.9 million and representing 2.90% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 13802.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 2.52 million shares at a value of $77.88 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.46% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Guardant Health Inc. (NASDAQ: GH) opened at $26.78, down -$0.16 from a prior closing price of $26.94. However, the script later moved the day high at 26.86, down -7.16%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -22.04% and -48.13% over the past three months. GH shares are trading -8.05% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -58.52% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $24.63 and touched a high of $77.72 over the same period. GH has an average intraday trading volume of 2.18 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -13.44%, -15.05%, and -41.90% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Guardant Health Inc. (NASDAQ: GH) shares accounts for 94.00% of the company’s 102.52M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 35.31%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 60.57% and 30.31% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.77B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.87. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$6.41. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 6.35% over the week and 6.39% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Guardant Health Inc. (GH) will achieve an EPS of -$1.38 for the current quarter, -$1.37 for the next quarter and -$5.2 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$1.6 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$1.27. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.89 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -60.00%, and 15.00% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 20 brokerage firm advisors rate Guardant Health Inc. (GH) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.70. Specifically, 16 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 20 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the GH, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Citigroup stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on March 09, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $60-$33. Scotiabank coverage for the Guardant Health Inc. (GH) stock in a research note released on January 05, 2023 offered a Sector Outperform rating with a price target of $36. Piper Sandler was of a view on November 01, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while Craig Hallum gave the stock Buy rating on October 19, 2022, issuing a price target of $88. Stephens on their part issued Overweight rating on October 06, 2022.
