Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH)

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 4,097 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 78% compared to the average daily volume of 2,301 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guardant Health

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in Guardant Health by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Guardant Health by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 12,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased 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 period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Guardant Health by 43.5% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 817 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its stake in Guardant Health by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 11,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on GH. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Guardant Health from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective (up previously from $39.00) on shares of Guardant Health in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Guardant Health from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Guardant Health from $34.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Guardant Health from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, Guardant Health currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.40.

Guardant Health Trading Up 5.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ GH opened at $42.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.05 and a beta of 1.50. Guardant Health has a 1-year low of $15.81 and a 1-year high of $50.89. The business’s 50 day moving average is $43.01 and its 200-day moving average is $32.90.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported ($0.90) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.75) by ($0.15). Guardant Health had a negative return on equity of 19,157.20% and a negative net margin of 59.05%. The company had revenue of $201.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $192.50 million. Analysts forecast that Guardant Health will post -2.9 EPS for the current year.

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.