JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Price Target to $78.00

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) had its price target boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $72.00 to $78.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the medical research company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on EW. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $83.00 to $77.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.67.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of EW opened at $68.52 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.71, a quick ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Edwards Lifesciences has a twelve month low of $58.93 and a twelve month high of $96.12. The company has a market cap of $41.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.13.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 22.35% and a net margin of 24.55%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Edwards Lifesciences

In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total transaction of $330,400.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,101,530.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.08, for a total transaction of $330,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,101,530.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $87,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,051,843.35. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,250 shares of company stock valued at $1,099,238 in the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Edwards Lifesciences

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EW. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.1% in 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 buying an additional 600,994 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 4.3% during 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $622,695,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390,137 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 17.8% during the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 3,273,416 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $216,013,000 after purchasing an additional 494,604 shares during the period. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 3.1% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,964,168 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $283,256,000 after purchasing an additional 88,205 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Company 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.