Champlain Investment Partners LLC Buys 132,515 Shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,080,703 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 132,515 shares during the quarter. Edwards Lifesciences comprises approximately 1.2% of Champlain Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Champlain Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $203,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 57.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,516,260 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $622,695,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,137 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the first quarter worth $124,511,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 4.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,782,909 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,827,347,000 after purchasing an additional 809,605 shares during the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 17.8% in the third quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 3,273,416 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $216,013,000 after purchasing an additional 494,604 shares during the period. Finally, United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund lifted its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 422.3% during the 3rd quarter. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund now owns 450,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $29,711,000 after buying an additional 364,030 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Edwards Lifesciences

In related news, insider Larry L. Wood sold 25,000 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.91, for a total transaction of $1,647,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 198,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,084,848.66. This trade represents a 11.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’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 directly owns 46,936 shares in the company, 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,000 shares of company stock worth $2,657,000. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $70.49 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $67.70 and its 200 day moving average is $75.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.58 billion, a PE ratio of 10.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.12. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 70.82%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. Edwards Lifesciences’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on EW. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Edwards Lifesciences from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Wolfe Research raised Edwards Lifesciences from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $107.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $85.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.67.

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.