Leavell Investment Management Inc. Sells 6,450 Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. decreased its stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 65.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,473 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 6,450 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $257,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 86.3% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,532,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,080,845,000 after acquiring an additional 14,610,123 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the fourth quarter valued at about $555,939,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 475.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,243,976 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $314,182,000 after purchasing an additional 3,506,886 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 239.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 3,693,663 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $243,745,000 after buying an additional 2,606,950 shares during the period. Finally, Seilern Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Edwards Lifesciences in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $109,490,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 11,250 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.76, for a total transaction of $852,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,315,301.36. This trade represents a 26.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.76, for a total value of $34,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 23,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,594,475.64. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,489 shares of company stock worth $2,002,829. 1.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

EW opened at $76.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $44.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.00, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $72.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.41. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 1-year low of $58.93 and a 1-year high of $96.12. The company has a current ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last announced 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 70.82% and a return on equity of 20.76%. On average, analysts expect that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on EW. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $82.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.95.

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.