Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Upgraded to Buy at BTIG Research

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) was upgraded by investment analysts at BTIG Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $100.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock. BTIG Research’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 23.23% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on EW. Dbs Bank upgraded Edwards Lifesciences to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective (up from $84.00) on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.71.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $81.15 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.69. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52 week low of $59.41 and a 52 week high of $83.00. The company has a market capitalization of $47.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68, a PEG ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 3.66, a current ratio of 4.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.05. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 72.96%. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.40, for a total transaction of $198,918.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 50,356 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,897,554.40. This represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.08, for a total value of $112,620.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 33,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,514,879.68. This represents a 4.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 34,962 shares of company stock valued at $2,641,387 over the last ninety days. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Vega Investment Solutions bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. SouthState Corp bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 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.