StockNews.com Lowers Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) to Hold

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their price target for the stock from $86.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $95.06.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

EW stock opened at $90.90 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $87.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $84.43. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52-week low of $60.57 and a 52-week high of $96.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.18, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 3.75.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The medical research company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.02. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 23.01% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The company had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.32, for a total transaction of $1,329,408.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 173,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,049,739.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.32, for a total value of $1,329,408.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 173,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,049,739.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.77, for a total value of $2,487,999.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $380,278.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 127,104 shares of company stock worth $11,267,464 in the last ninety days. 1.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter worth approximately $648,540,000. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 18,181,420 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,386,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,048,274 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 2,390,137 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 197.0% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,446,758 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $262,815,000 after purchasing an additional 2,286,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter worth approximately $168,519,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

About Edwards Lifesciences

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.