Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 114,228 shares of the medical research company's stock, valued at approximately $8,456,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 86.3% in the third 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 buying an additional 14,610,123 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter valued at $555,939,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in 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 worth $314,182,000 after buying an additional 3,506,886 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 239.9% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Seilern Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Edwards Lifesciences during the fourth quarter worth $109,490,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EW has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised Edwards Lifesciences from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Bank of America raised Edwards Lifesciences from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $82.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $79.95.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 11,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.76, for a total value of $852,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,561 shares in the company, valued at $2,315,301.36. The trade was a 26.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 23,189 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,594,475.64. This represents a 2.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,303 shares of company stock worth $3,715,776. Corporate insiders own 1.29% of the company's stock.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:EW traded up $0.53 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $70.87. The company had a trading volume of 2,488,439 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,481,671. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 3.46 and a quick ratio of 2.89. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a one year low of $58.93 and a one year high of $96.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $71.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $70.35. The company has a market capitalization of $41.66 billion, a PE ratio of 10.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.12.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW - Get Free Report) last posted 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 72.93% and a return on equity of 19.40%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.45 EPS for the current 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.