Independent Advisor Alliance Invests $374,000 in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Independent Advisor Alliance purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,047 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $374,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EW. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 86.3% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,532,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,080,845,000 after purchasing an additional 14,610,123 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the fourth quarter worth approximately $555,939,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 475.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,243,976 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $314,182,000 after buying an additional 3,506,886 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the fourth quarter worth approximately $213,844,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 239.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,693,663 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $243,745,000 after buying an additional 2,606,950 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian sold 6,164 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total value of $428,459.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 59,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,106,859.33. This trade represents a 9.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.48, for a total value of $27,792.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,588 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,414.24. This trade represents a 1.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,303 shares of company stock valued at $3,715,776 over the last three months. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America upgraded 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 note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.95.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EW opened at $70.31 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. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $71.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $70.35. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 1-year low of $58.93 and a 1-year high of $96.12. The company has a market cap of $41.33 billion, a PE ratio of 10.09, a P/E/G ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 72.93%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

Edwards Lifesciences 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.