NEW YORK, May 24, 2026, 15:02 EDT
Guardant Health is coming off a volatile week heading into a holiday break, finishing Friday at $118.95 after a fresh FDA approval helped push the shares up about 25% for the week. The Nasdaq cancer test maker surged 17.1% on May 20 as its Guardant360 Liquid CDx blood test cleared a key regulatory hurdle. Shares reached as much as $121.01 during the week, according to price data.
Markets are closed at the moment. May 24 falls on a Sunday in New York, and according to Nasdaq’s 2026 holiday calendar, U.S. equity markets will stay shut for Memorial Day on Monday, May 25. Regular trading picks up again Tuesday, giving investors their first shot to react.
Guardant now has a new catalyst after the FDA approval, coming only weeks since the company raised its 2026 sales forecast. The company’s liquid biopsy, a blood test to find cancer signals without needing a tissue sample, is a big part of Guardant’s push to make routine cancer tests faster and easier.
Guardant360 Liquid CDx, now approved, is a companion diagnostic used to find cancer patients who might qualify for targeted drugs. According to CancerNetwork, which cited Guardant’s statement, the new version merges genomic and epigenomic testing. It still covers seven companion-diagnostic uses cleared by the FDA and aims to give results in under a week.
Guardant Chairman and co-CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said the FDA clearance lets the company combine “genomics, epigenomics, advanced AI” and data from over one million tested patients to give doctors a wider look from a blood sample. Guardant said its test has broad coverage from Medicare and commercial insurers, with more than 300 million covered lives. Guardant Health Investor Relations
Wall Street saw this approval as more than just a label bump. William Blair analyst Andrew Brackmann told Investors Business Daily that it arrived months ahead of schedule and could mean “modest upward revenue revisions this year.” Brackmann also called it a “major milestone” for Guardant’s blood-based therapy selection business. Daniel Markowitz at Evercore ISI told IBD he expects Guardant to go after Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Test status under Medicare. If approved, that could push pricing for the lab test from $5,000 to $8,000, IBD said. Investors
Guardant’s move higher is also tied to its Q1 results. The company put out revenue of $301.7 million for the March quarter, a 48% jump from last year. Oncology brought in $205.0 million, with screening adding $41.6 million. Guardant also bumped its 2026 outlook to a range of $1.30 billion to $1.32 billion, up from $1.25 billion to $1.28 billion.
Guardant’s Co-CEO AmirAli Talasaz said the company had “strong volume momentum” for Shield at the end of the first quarter and is looking for more volume gains as it adds to sales teams and works alongside Quest and other partners. Shield is Guardant’s blood test for colorectal cancer screening and isn’t the same as Guardant360, but the market is treating Guardant as a larger blood-testing platform player.
The competitive set is tight but matters. Guardant’s screening targets Exact Sciences, which has run stool-based colorectal cancer tests like Cologuard for some time, while Guardant Reveal is compared with Natera’s Signatera, a blood test for circulating tumor DNA used to spot signs of cancer left after treatment.
But the stock’s rally tightens the timeline. Guardant is still in the red: it booked a net loss of $112.1 million for the first quarter and burned $71.2 million in free cash after capital spending. Without faster reimbursement or stronger Shield uptake, or if costs keep climbing, the FDA approval may test the valuation instead of boosting revenue.
Quiet on events this week, so traders are looking for follow-through on Guardant. The main question is if Guardant can defend its FDA gap after the holiday. Analysts may shift their 2026 numbers. Investors are also after updates on Medicare pricing and the start of the expanded Guardant360 test.
Investors jumped on the approval, trading up first. The tough questions can wait. That’s where the tape is right now.
