Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 20,500 Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 31.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,144 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 20,500 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $2,979,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 175.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 38,090 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,640,000 after acquiring an additional 24,242 shares during the period. BDF Gestion bought a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the second quarter worth $5,148,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 54.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 30,245 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,890,000 after acquiring an additional 10,700 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 2.8% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,825,230 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $168,597,000 after acquiring an additional 50,124 shares during the period. Finally, AIA Group Ltd increased its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 91.7% during the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 749,524 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $49,461,000 after acquiring an additional 358,556 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE EW opened at $71.56 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $67.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.37. The company has a market cap of $42.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 3.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 12-month low of $58.93 and a 12-month high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.67. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 70.82% and a return on equity of 20.76%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on EW shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.77, for a total transaction of $333,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,133,916.72. The trade was a 9.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Larry L. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.91, for a total value of $1,647,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 198,526 shares in the company, valued at $13,084,848.66. This represents a 11.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,000 shares of company stock worth $2,657,000 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

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.