GWN Securities Inc. Purchases New Position in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

GWN Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 9,525 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $658,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 86.3% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,532,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,080,845,000 after acquiring an additional 14,610,123 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter worth approximately $555,939,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 475.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,243,976 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $314,182,000 after acquiring an additional 3,506,886 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter worth approximately $213,844,000. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 239.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,693,663 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $243,745,000 after acquiring an additional 2,606,950 shares during the last quarter. 79.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on EW shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.95.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 9,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.96, for a total transaction of $645,620.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,189,770.56. This represents a 16.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian sold 6,164 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total transaction of $428,459.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,106,859.33. This trade represents a 9.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,303 shares of company stock worth $3,715,776. 1.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

EW opened at $69.37 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $40.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.95, a PEG ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.12. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.74 and a 200 day moving average of $70.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.89 and a current ratio of 3.46. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a fifty-two week low of $58.93 and a fifty-two week high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The medical research company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a net margin of 72.93% and a return on equity of 19.40%. On average, research analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.45 EPS for the current year.

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.