Barclays Increases Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Price Target to $88.00

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) had its target price raised by equities research analysts at Barclays from $85.00 to $88.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 25.37% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on EW. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a report on Friday, October 11th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Seventeen research 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.25.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of EW traded down $1.16 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $70.19. 594,941 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,612,499. The company has a market cap of $41.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $68.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.05. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52-week low of $58.93 and a 52-week high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 70.82%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.57, for a total value of $327,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,077,593.52. The trade was a 9.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Larry L. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.91, for a total value of $1,647,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 198,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,084,848.66. This represents a 11.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,657,000 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Edwards Lifesciences

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 175.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 38,090 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,640,000 after acquiring an additional 24,242 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 30.5% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,375 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 788 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 55.6% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 5,070 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $484,000 after buying an additional 1,811 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 5.5% in the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,450 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,242,000 after buying an additional 696 shares during the period. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 0.5% during the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 23,484 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,169,000 after buying an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.