Guardant Health stock price target raised to $70 from $65 at BTIG

Investing.com - BTIG raised its price target on Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) to $70 from $65 on Thursday, maintaining a Buy rating after the company released improved data for its Shield colon cancer screening test. The healthcare company, currently valued at $7.48 billion, has shown strong revenue growth of 28.74% over the last twelve months.

The healthcare company unveiled updated results for its FDA-cleared, blood-based Shield test, showing a one-point improvement in overall sensitivity and a seven-point improvement in stage 1 sensitivity while maintaining the same level of specificity.

BTIG called the advancement significant, reinforcing Guardant’s leadership position in liquid biopsy technology, and noted that Guardant Health remains its Top Pick for 2025 with shares up 96% year-to-date.

The firm expressed confusion about the stock’s 9% drop following the announcement, suggesting investors may be misinterpreting the data similar to reactions after previous test results.

Guardant’s Shield test has already secured Medicare coverage with premium pricing and is included in NCCN guidelines, with the company planning to discuss further Shield CRC V2 and Shield MCED pipeline initiatives at its upcoming Analyst Day in New York City on September 24.

In other recent news, Guardant Health announced its second-quarter results, exceeding expectations and prompting management to revise its full-year revenue growth guidance to 24-25% year-over-year, up from the previous 15-16% projection. Following these strong results, Scotiabank raised its price target for Guardant Health to $60 while maintaining a Sector Outperform rating. Guardant Health also released clinical validation results for the latest version of its Shield blood test algorithm for colorectal cancer screening, demonstrating an 84% sensitivity and 90% specificity. The updated algorithm showed varying sensitivity across cancer stages, with 62% for stage I and 100% for stages II and IV.

Despite these developments, Raymond James maintained its Outperform rating with a $61 price target, noting that the Shield V2 algorithm update showed less improvement than initially anticipated. Similarly, Evercore ISI reiterated an Outperform rating and a $60 price target, observing that the results from the ECLIPSE study were in line with the previous version and suggesting that differences in the cohort’s age distribution and cancer stages might have impacted the results. Leerink Partners also maintained an Outperform rating and a $70 price target, following the Shield V2 results, highlighting improvements in stage I cancer detection. These recent developments indicate continued interest and analysis from major firms regarding Guardant Health’s performance and future prospects.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.