Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in 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. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.8 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on EW shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $78.00 price objective (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.95.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

NYSE EW traded up $1.42 on Friday, reaching $69.37. The company had a trading volume of 3,587,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,523,569. The company has a quick ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 3.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.78 billion, a PE ratio of 9.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $71.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.33. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12 month low of $58.93 and a 12 month high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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, equities analysts predict that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Edwards Lifesciences

In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 9,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.96, for a total transaction of $645,620.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at $3,189,770.56. This represents a 16.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian sold 6,164 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total transaction of $428,459.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 59,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,106,859.33. This trade represents a 9.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,803 shares of company stock worth $3,900,976. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Edwards Lifesciences

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,132,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,117,845,000 after buying an additional 6,537,494 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 5.3% in 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 buying an additional 1,678,154 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% in 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 buying an additional 256,538 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 worth $1,007,520,000 after buying an additional 126,194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 7.7% in 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 during the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.