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

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $92.71.

EW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Heisz Leslie Stone sold 7,056 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.45, for a total transaction of $609,991.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,980 shares in the company, valued at $2,332,421. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of the 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 transaction, the director now owns 4,486 shares in the company, valued at $380,278.22. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Heisz Leslie Stone sold 7,056 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.45, for a total transaction of $609,991.20. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,980 shares in the company, valued at $2,332,421. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 237,749 shares of company stock valued at $20,920,934. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,363,400 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,992,709,000 after buying an additional 729,984 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 18,973,304 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,813,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,644,869 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position 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. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 2.4% during 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 buying an additional 393,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the fourth quarter worth $648,540,000. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE EW opened at $85.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $51.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 2.67. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.23. Edwards Lifesciences has a 1 year low of $60.57 and a 1 year high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical research company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 23.01%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

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.