Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Raised to “Outperform” at Daiwa Capital Markets

Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat reports.

EW has been the subject of several other reports. Baird R W downgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Edwards Lifesciences from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TD Cowen downgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a buy rating to a hold rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $99.00 to $90.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $82.10.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Down 1.7 %

Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $60.79 on Wednesday. Edwards Lifesciences has a fifty-two week low of $58.93 and a fifty-two 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 company has a market capitalization of $36.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.20, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.41.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.01. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 22.35% and a net margin of 24.55%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 5,625 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.45, for a total value of $508,781.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,764,242.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian sold 8,617 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.68, for a total transaction of $755,538.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 68,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,981,354.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 5,625 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.45, for a total value of $508,781.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,764,242.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,099 shares of company stock worth $2,680,879 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter worth $648,540,000. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake 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 period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $622,695,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390,137 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 197.0% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,446,758 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $262,815,000 after purchasing an additional 2,286,119 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

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.