Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Upgraded to “Buy” by Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $105.00 price objective on the medical research company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $98.00.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on EW. OTR Global raised Edwards Lifesciences from a mixed rating to a positive rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com raised Edwards Lifesciences from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $94.31.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:EW opened at $87.98 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $89.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.53. The stock has a market cap of $53.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.10. Edwards Lifesciences has a 1 year low of $60.57 and a 1 year high of $96.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a current ratio of 3.75.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The medical research company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.02. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 23.01%. The business had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.59, for a total transaction of $620,955.45. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,632,543.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.59, for a total transaction of $620,955.45. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,632,543.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.67, for a total value of $2,543,764.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,486 shares in the company, valued at $388,801.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 180,707 shares of company stock valued at $16,034,814 in the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EW. DSM Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the first quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC purchased a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. 79.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.