National Pension Service Increases Position in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,406,560 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,175 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $107,250,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 2.6% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 39,392 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,729,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 13.7% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 159,116 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,074,000 after acquiring an additional 19,208 shares during the last quarter. Gratus Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 1.4% during the third quarter. Gratus Capital LLC now owns 14,187 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $983,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the period. Simmons Bank increased its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 32,339 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,240,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 19.1% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 678,407 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $47,000,000 after buying an additional 108,904 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian acquired 580 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $85.74 per share, for a total transaction of $49,729.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $280,198.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian purchased 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $85.74 per share, for a total transaction of $49,729.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $280,198.32. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $620,955.45. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,074 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,543.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 230,693 shares of company stock valued at $20,310,942 over the last three months. 1.27% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on EW shares. StockNews.com upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $94.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. OTR Global upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “mixed” rating to a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.27.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE EW traded up $1.95 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $87.04. 1,146,281 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,682,894. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.69. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 1-year low of $60.57 and a 1-year high of $96.12. The company has a market cap of $52.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 3.75, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The medical research company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 23.01% and a return on equity of 22.86%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.77 EPS for the current year.

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.