Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 126,447 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 997 shares during the quarter. Edwards Lifesciences makes up 0.9% of Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $9,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of EW. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 11.4% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,181 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,081,000 after buying an additional 941 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 34.7% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,738 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $204,000 after buying an additional 448 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 18.2% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,223 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $144,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 53.5% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,182 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $846,000 after buying an additional 2,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 3.1% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 655,567 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $77,173,000 after buying an additional 19,798 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Price Performance

Shares of NYSE EW traded down $0.51 during trading on Friday, hitting $85.94. The company had a trading volume of 3,870,469 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,865,638. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.31. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a fifty-two week low of $60.57 and a fifty-two week high of $96.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.40, a current ratio of 3.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on EW. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. OTR Global upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “mixed” rating to a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.73.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.29, for a total value of $567,993.95. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,248 shares in the company, valued at $1,506,925.92. The sale 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.29, for a total value of $567,993.95. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,506,925.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Catherine M. Szyman sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.62, for a total transaction of $2,311,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 34,814 shares in the company, valued at $2,980,774.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 194,004 shares of company stock worth $17,166,254 over the last 90 days. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Company 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.