Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Price Target Raised to $75.00

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $70.00 to $75.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the medical research company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $82.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.95.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EW opened at $76.23 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 3.46 and a quick ratio of 2.89. Edwards Lifesciences has a 1-year low of $58.93 and a 1-year high of $96.12. The company has a market capitalization of $44.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.41.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 70.82% and a return on equity of 20.76%. Research analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 500 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.76, for a total transaction of $34,380.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 23,189 shares in the company, valued at $1,594,475.64. The trade was a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven R. Loranger sold 5,739 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total value of $438,574.38. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 60,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,613,628.24. The trade was a 8.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,489 shares of company stock worth $2,002,829 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,132,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,117,845,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537,494 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 33,210,879 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,458,601,000 after buying an additional 1,678,154 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,265,633 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,733,270,000 after buying an additional 256,538 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,647,341 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,007,520,000 after buying an additional 126,194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,775,276 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $723,664,000 after purchasing an additional 696,965 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

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.