Brokerages Set Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) PT at $79.95

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-six brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $79.95.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $75.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EW opened at $71.79 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 3.46 and a quick ratio of 2.89. The company has a market cap of $42.34 billion, a PE ratio of 10.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.10. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12 month low of $58.93 and a 12 month high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 72.93%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 11,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.76, for a total value of $852,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,315,301.36. This trade represents a 26.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.76, for a total value of $34,380.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 23,189 shares in the company, valued at $1,594,475.64. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 37,739 shares of company stock valued at $2,799,104. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Edwards Lifesciences

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,132,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,117,845,000 after acquiring an additional 6,537,494 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 5.3% during the 4th 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 raised its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,265,633 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,733,270,000 after purchasing an additional 256,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 0.9% in the 4th 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 grew its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,775,276 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $723,664,000 after buying an additional 696,965 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.