Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the twenty-five research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $75.67.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research note on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Baird R W lowered Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, July 25th.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $69.38 on Friday. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52 week low of $58.93 and a 52 week high of $96.12. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $68.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.65. The company has a quick ratio of 2.87, a current ratio of 3.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.91, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.13.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 24.55% and a return on equity of 22.35%. The business’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total value of $347,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,262,521.36. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $87,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 29,333 shares in the company, valued at $2,051,843.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total value of $347,550.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,262,521.36. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,250 shares of company stock worth $1,099,238 over the last 90 days. 1.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $622,695,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,137 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 100,739.7% during the first quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 1,406,714 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $134,092,000 after acquiring an additional 1,405,319 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the first quarter worth $124,511,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 162.7% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,465,719 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $140,064,000 after acquiring an additional 907,688 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 4.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,782,909 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,827,347,000 after purchasing an additional 809,605 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Company Profile

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation provides products and technologies for structural heart disease and critical care monitoring in the United States, Europe, Japan, and internationally. It offers transcatheter heart valve replacement products for the minimally invasive replacement of aortic heart valves under the Edwards SAPIEN family of valves system; and transcatheter heart valve repair and replacement products to treat mitral and tricuspid valve diseases under the PASCAL PRECISION and Cardioband names.