Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires 81,470 Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 12.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 737,090 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 81,470 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned approximately 0.12% of Edwards Lifesciences worth $48,641,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EW. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,964,394 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,061,277,000 after acquiring an additional 600,994 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 4.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,782,909 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,827,347,000 after acquiring an additional 809,605 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $622,695,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390,137 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,964,168 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $283,256,000 after buying an additional 88,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 14.2% in the 2nd quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 2,778,812 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $256,679,000 after buying an additional 344,465 shares during the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on EW. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.81.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $87,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 29,333 shares in the company, valued at $2,051,843.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total transaction of $330,400.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,101,530.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $87,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,051,843.35. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 16,250 shares of company stock valued at $1,099,238. 1.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $70.31 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $42.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.31, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 3.71 and a quick ratio of 2.87. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 1 year low of $58.93 and a 1 year high of $96.12. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $68.04 and its 200 day moving average is $78.71.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.01. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 24.55% and a return on equity of 22.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.71 EPS for the current fiscal 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.