Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) Short Interest Update

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,490,000 shares, a decrease of 28.7% from the February 13th total of 11,900,000 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 4,740,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on EW shares. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.95.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Edwards Lifesciences stock traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $70.17. 1,764,056 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,574,599. The company has a market capitalization of $41.25 billion, a PE ratio of 10.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day moving average of $71.68 and a 200 day moving average of $70.34. Edwards Lifesciences has a 1-year low of $58.93 and a 1-year high of $96.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 3.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 72.93% and a return on equity of 19.40%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.76, for a total transaction of $34,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 23,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,594,475.64. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 11,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.76, for a total value of $852,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,315,301.36. This represents a 26.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,303 shares of company stock worth $3,715,776 in the last 90 days. 1.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,132,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,117,845,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537,494 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 33,210,879 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,458,601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678,154 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,265,633 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,733,270,000 after buying an additional 256,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,647,341 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,007,520,000 after buying an additional 126,194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,775,276 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $723,664,000 after buying an additional 696,965 shares in the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.