Short Interest in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) Decreases By 6.3%

Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,700,000 shares, a drop of 6.3% from the October 15th total of 8,220,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days. Currently, 1.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, VP Daveen Chopra sold 1,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $87,437.50. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 29,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,051,843.35. This represents a 4.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,133,916.72. This trade represents a 9.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,250 shares of company stock valued at $2,744,438 in the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Edwards Lifesciences

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 23,484 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,169,000 after buying an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. City State Bank raised its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. City State Bank now owns 917 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Stableford Capital II LLC lifted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Stableford Capital II LLC now owns 6,104 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $533,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Purus Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Purus Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,212 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. Finally, Busey Bank grew its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Busey Bank now owns 8,838 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $816,000 after buying an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EW traded up $0.91 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $68.67. 197,357 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,623,145. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.78, a PEG ratio of 3.81 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $67.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.12. Edwards Lifesciences has a one year low of $58.93 and a one year high of $96.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.67. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 70.82%. Edwards Lifesciences’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $103.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Wolfe Research upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $75.67.

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.