ING Groep NV Lowers Stock Holdings in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

ING Groep NV reduced its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 80,565 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 522 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $5,316,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of EW. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 6,887 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $658,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 1st quarter worth approximately $853,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,964,394 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $5,061,277,000 after purchasing an additional 600,994 shares during the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 16.7% in the 1st quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $596,000 after acquiring an additional 892 shares during the period. Finally, Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 10.0% during the first quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 16,223 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of EW stock opened at $67.76 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.78, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.89 and a current ratio of 3.46. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.37. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a twelve month low of $58.93 and a twelve month high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 70.82% and a return on equity of 20.76%. Edwards Lifesciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.57 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Bank of America lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $105.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Daiwa America downgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $75.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.77, for a total transaction of $333,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,133,916.72. The trade was a 9.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $87,437.50. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,051,843.35. This trade represents a 4.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,250 shares of company stock valued at $2,744,438. Insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences 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.