Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Stock Price

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) had its price objective increased by Barclays from $85.00 to $88.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the medical research company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $76.00 to $70.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Daiwa America cut Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a report on Friday, October 11th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.25.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EW opened at $70.53 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $68.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.05. 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 capitalization of $41.60 billion, a PE ratio of 10.18, a PEG ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 1.12. Edwards Lifesciences has a 1-year low of $58.93 and a 1-year high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 70.82% and a return on equity of 20.76%. Edwards Lifesciences’s revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total transaction of $347,550.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,262,521.36. The trade was a 9.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Larry L. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.91, for a total transaction of $1,647,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 198,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,084,848.66. This represents a 11.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,000 shares of company stock worth $2,657,000 over the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 86.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,532,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,080,845,000 after purchasing an additional 14,610,123 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 worth $1,733,270,000 after purchasing an additional 256,538 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 4.3% in the second 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 buying an additional 809,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 2.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,521,147 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $889,050,000 after buying an additional 284,918 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,078,311 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $599,078,000 after buying an additional 806,705 shares in the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.