Wellington Management Group LLP Grows Stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 86.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,532,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,610,123 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned approximately 5.35% of Edwards Lifesciences worth $2,080,845,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 9.2% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 478,418 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $31,571,000 after acquiring an additional 40,348 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 2.8% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,825,230 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $168,597,000 after acquiring an additional 50,124 shares in the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences by 91.7% in the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 749,524 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $49,461,000 after acquiring an additional 358,556 shares in the last quarter. RiverPark Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 58.1% during the third quarter. RiverPark Advisors LLC now owns 20,639 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,362,000 after buying an additional 7,583 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 40.0% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 36,745 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,394,000 after buying an additional 10,492 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Edwards Lifesciences currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.35.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:EW opened at $72.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 1.12. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 52 week low of $58.93 and a 52 week high of $96.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 3.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $68.55 and a 200 day moving average of $74.76.

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

Insider Transactions at Edwards Lifesciences

In other news, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.77, for a total transaction of $333,850.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 46,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,133,916.72. This represents a 9.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Larry L. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.91, for a total value of $1,647,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 198,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,084,848.66. The trade was a 11.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 40,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,657,000. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company’s stock.

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.