Bank of America Downgrades Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) to Neutral

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) was downgraded by Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $75.00 price objective on the medical research company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $105.00. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 20.25% from the company’s previous close.

EW has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $86.00 to $103.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $107.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.10.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EW opened at $62.37 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $87.98 and a 200 day moving average of $86.84. The company has a current ratio of 3.75, a quick ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.11. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12-month low of $58.93 and a 12-month high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.01. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 24.55% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In related news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.80, for a total transaction of $622,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,636,549.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.29, for a total transaction of $466,450.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at $4,378,659.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.80, for a total transaction of $622,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,074 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,636,549.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 81,099 shares of company stock valued at $7,003,553 over the last 90 days. 1.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,964,394 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,061,277,000 after acquiring an additional 600,994 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 809,605 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 18,181,420 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,386,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,048,274 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,827,510 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,283,098,000 after purchasing an additional 393,109 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter worth about $648,540,000. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

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.