Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases New Shares in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,705 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EW. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 0.3% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,556 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,127,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% in the first quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,487 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Geller Advisors LLC grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 6.5% in the first quarter. Geller Advisors LLC now owns 1,965 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $231,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Martin Capital Advisors LLP grew its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Martin Capital Advisors LLP now owns 25,490 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,944,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 16,958 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,293,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.67, for a total transaction of $2,543,764.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,486 shares in the company, valued at $388,801.62. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.29, for a total transaction of $567,993.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,248 shares in the company, valued at $1,506,925.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.67, for a total transaction of $2,543,764.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,801.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 194,004 shares of company stock worth $17,166,254. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. OTR Global raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “mixed” rating to a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.73.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EW traded down $0.51 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $85.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,895,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,826,513. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $90.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a current ratio of 3.38. The company has a market cap of $51.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 1.05. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 12-month low of $60.57 and a 12-month high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.64. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 23.35% and a return on equity of 23.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.76 EPS for the current year.

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.