Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Lifted to “Buy” at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $105.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $98.00.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on EW. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $94.31.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $87.98 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.67, a current ratio of 3.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $53.02 billion, a PE ratio of 37.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50 day moving average of $89.68 and a 200 day moving average of $81.53. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52 week low of $60.57 and a 52 week high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced 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 during 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $1,212,624.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 173,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,639,824.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $1,212,624.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 173,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,639,824.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.59, for a total value of $620,955.45. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,074 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,543.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 180,707 shares of company stock valued at $16,034,814. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC bought a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 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.