Railway Pension Investments Ltd Reduces Stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Railway Pension Investments Ltd cut its stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 10.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,695,580 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 200,100 shares during the quarter. Edwards Lifesciences makes up approximately 1.6% of Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Railway Pension Investments Ltd owned approximately 0.28% of Edwards Lifesciences worth $162,030,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 600,994 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 9.5% in the first 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 acquiring an additional 1,644,869 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake 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 valued at $1,386,333,000 after acquiring an additional 3,048,274 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake 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 valued at $1,283,098,000 after acquiring an additional 393,109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $648,540,000. 79.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of EW traded down $1.03 on Friday, hitting $60.83. 6,789,806 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,907,783. The company has a market capitalization of $36.64 billion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.87 and a current ratio of 3.71. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.41. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a one year low of $58.93 and a one year high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 24.55% and a return on equity of 22.35%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.29, for a total value of $466,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,378,659.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,378,659.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 5,625 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.45, for a total transaction of $508,781.25. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,561 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,764,242.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,099 shares of company stock valued at $2,680,879. Company insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $99.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $101.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Fourteen investment 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.10.

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.