Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Edwards Lifesciences Put Options (NYSE:EW)

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 18,389 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 127% compared to the typical volume of 8,107 put options.

Insider Activity at Edwards Lifesciences

In related news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares in the company, valued at $4,378,659.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Edwards Lifesciences news, 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 sale, the vice president now owns 29,333 shares in the company, valued at $2,051,843.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,250 shares of company stock worth $1,321,988. 1.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EW. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter worth approximately $648,540,000. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 18,181,420 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,386,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,048,274 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $622,695,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390,137 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 197.0% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,446,758 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $262,815,000 after purchasing an additional 2,286,119 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 18,973,304 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,813,089,000 after purchasing an additional 1,644,869 shares during the period. 79.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on EW. Truist Financial cut Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Citigroup upped their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Daiwa America raised Edwards Lifesciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $101.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $107.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.10.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Up 3.4 %

EW stock traded up $2.32 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $70.97. 2,934,880 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,090,462. Edwards Lifesciences has a 52-week low of $58.93 and a 52-week high of $96.12. 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 moving average of $78.30 and a 200-day moving average of $85.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.11.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.