Barclays Raises Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Price Target to $90.00

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) had its price target increased by investment analysts at Barclays from $88.00 to $90.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Barclays‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 18.07% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on EW. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research downgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Stifel Nicolaus raised 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 note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.95.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

NYSE:EW opened at $76.23 on Thursday. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52 week low of $58.93 and a 52 week high of $96.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 3.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a market capitalization of $44.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $72.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.41.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 70.82%. Equities analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Steven R. Loranger sold 5,739 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total value of $438,574.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 60,372 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,613,628.24. This trade represents a 8.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 500 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.76, for a total value of $34,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 23,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,594,475.64. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,489 shares of company stock valued at $2,002,829. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,132,036 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,117,845,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537,494 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in 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 worth $2,458,601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678,154 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,265,633 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,733,270,000 after purchasing an additional 256,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,647,341 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,007,520,000 after acquiring an additional 126,194 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,775,276 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $723,664,000 after acquiring an additional 696,965 shares during the period. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.