Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has $72.00 price objective on the medical research company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $105.00.

EW has been the subject of a number of other reports. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a buy rating to a hold rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $86.00 to $103.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $82.10.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

EW stock opened at $62.37 on Thursday. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12 month low of $58.93 and a 12 month high of $96.12. The company has a current ratio of 3.71, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $87.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.99. The stock has a market cap of $37.58 billion, a PE ratio of 26.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.11.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.01. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 24.55% and a return on equity of 22.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total transaction of $1,212,624.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 173,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,639,824.29. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.80, for a total transaction of $622,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,636,549.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total transaction of $1,212,624.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 173,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,639,824.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 81,099 shares of company stock worth $7,003,553 in the last 90 days. 1.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Edwards Lifesciences

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,964,394 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,061,277,000 after purchasing an additional 600,994 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,782,909 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,827,347,000 after purchasing an additional 809,605 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 20.1% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 18,181,420 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,386,333,000 after acquiring an additional 3,048,274 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,827,510 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,283,098,000 after acquiring an additional 393,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the 4th quarter valued at $648,540,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.