Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Cut to “Hold” at Daiwa America

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) was downgraded by Daiwa America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Friday, October 11th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 9th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.67.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Down 2.3 %

Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $67.02 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $67.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.85. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52 week low of $58.93 and a 52 week high of $96.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.87 and a current ratio of 3.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.13.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 70.82% and a return on equity of 22.56%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.57 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total transaction of $330,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,530.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $87,437.50. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,051,843.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total transaction of $330,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,530.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,250 shares of company stock worth $1,099,238 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 330,711 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $31,603,000 after purchasing an additional 14,087 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 151.2% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 20,123 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,923,000 after purchasing an additional 12,112 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 175.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 38,090 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,640,000 after purchasing an additional 24,242 shares during the last quarter. BDF Gestion bought a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,148,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 54.7% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 30,245 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,890,000 after purchasing an additional 10,700 shares during the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.