Canaccord Genuity Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Stock

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) had its price objective lifted by Canaccord Genuity Group from $68.00 to $71.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Canaccord Genuity Group currently has a hold rating on the medical research company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on EW. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $82.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.95.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

EW stock opened at $75.96 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $72.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.36. The company has a market cap of $44.80 billion, a PE ratio of 10.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12-month low of $58.93 and a 12-month high of $96.12.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Edwards Lifesciences

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 6,500 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.75, for a total value of $492,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at $3,555,402. The trade was a 12.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 11,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.76, for a total value of $852,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at $2,315,301.36. The trade was a 26.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,750 shares of company stock worth $1,564,255 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EW. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,132,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,117,845,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537,494 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,678,154 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% during 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 boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,647,341 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,007,520,000 after buying an additional 126,194 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,775,276 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $723,664,000 after buying an additional 696,965 shares in the last quarter. 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.