Sandhill Capital Partners LLC Acquires 900 Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Sandhill Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,972 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the quarter. Sandhill Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $1,904,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EW. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 4.9% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 37,480 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,597,000 after acquiring an additional 1,734 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC raised its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 4.8% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 8,611 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $597,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the third quarter worth $700,000. Czech National Bank increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 48.1% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 106,252 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $7,361,000 after purchasing an additional 34,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 0.5% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 323,224 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $22,393,000 after purchasing an additional 1,622 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on EW shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. OTR Global raised Edwards Lifesciences from a “mixed” rating to a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.73.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Edwards Lifesciences stock traded down $0.60 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $88.01. 4,166,251 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,829,875. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $90.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $78.69. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a twelve month low of $60.57 and a twelve month high of $96.12. The company has a current ratio of 3.38, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market cap of $52.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 1.05.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 23.35% and a return on equity of 23.56%. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.64 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.29, for a total transaction of $567,993.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,506,925.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.29, for a total value of $567,993.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,506,925.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Jean-Luc M. Lemercier sold 14,400 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.32, for a total transaction of $1,329,408.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 173,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,049,739.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 194,004 shares of company stock worth $17,166,254 in the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.