Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) Cut to Hold at Jefferies Financial Group

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) was downgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, FinViz reports. They presently have a $70.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $85.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 4.14% from the company’s current price.

EW has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Edwards Lifesciences from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $105.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $88.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $100.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.82.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of EW stock opened at $67.22 on Wednesday. Edwards Lifesciences has a 12-month low of $58.93 and a 12-month high of $96.12. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $71.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.22. 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 company has a market capitalization of $40.51 billion, a PE ratio of 28.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.13.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 last year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at $4,378,659.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.29, for a total transaction of $466,450.00. Following 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,051,843.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,250 shares of company stock worth $1,218,138 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. First Community Trust NA acquired a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences in the first quarter worth approximately $34,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. bought a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.