Short Interest in Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) Rises By 34.3%

Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH) was the target of a large increase in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,390,000 shares, an increase of 34.3% from the July 31st total of 6,990,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,150,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on GH shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Guardant Health from $28.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Guardant Health from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on Guardant Health from $32.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Guardant Health from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.31.

Institutional Trading of Guardant Health

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the second quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Canton Hathaway LLC purchased a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the 2nd quarter valued at $59,000. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 362.3% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 2,353 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 1,844 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter valued at $71,000. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 2nd quarter worth $77,000. 92.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Guardant Health Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GH opened at $25.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 5.95, a quick ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.70. The firm has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.53 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $29.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.60. Guardant Health has a 12-month low of $15.81 and a 12-month high of $41.06.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.84) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.74) by ($0.10). Guardant Health had a negative return on equity of 246.47% and a negative net margin of 76.34%. The company had revenue of $177.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $162.59 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.67) earnings per share. Guardant Health’s revenue was up 29.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Guardant Health will post -3.31 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.