Insider Selling: Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) VP Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total transaction of $347,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,262,521.36. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $68.44 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.87, a current ratio of 3.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.45. The stock has a market cap of $41.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.50, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.13. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 52 week low of $58.93 and a 52 week high of $96.12.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on EW shares. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $76.00 to $70.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays cut their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $77.00 to $66.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.81.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. First Community Trust NA purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Webster Bank N. A. bought a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the second quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 125.0% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 477 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.