Edwards Lifesciences Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:EW)

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 30,930 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 251% compared to the average daily volume of 8,811 call options.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total value of $330,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,530.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $87,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares in the company, valued at $2,051,843.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total value of $330,400.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,101,530.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 16,250 shares of company stock worth $1,218,138. 1.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the 4th quarter valued at $648,540,000. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 20.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,048,274 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $622,695,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,137 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 197.0% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,446,758 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $262,815,000 after purchasing an additional 2,286,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 18,973,304 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,813,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,644,869 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Baird R W cut shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $91.00 to $76.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.29.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $68.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.87, a current ratio of 3.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.13. Edwards Lifesciences has a twelve month low of $58.93 and a twelve month high of $96.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.47.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 22.35% and a net margin of 24.55%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.7 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.