Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Has $44,000 Stock Position in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lessened its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW) by 24.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 588 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 189 shares during the quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $44,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in EW. Keel Point LLC lifted its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 4,814 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $356,000 after buying an additional 976 shares during the period. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the 4th quarter valued at $56,353,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 137.2% in the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 121,386 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $8,986,000 after purchasing an additional 70,201 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 43.5% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 208,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $15,464,000 after purchasing an additional 63,313 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,505,227 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $481,582,000 after purchasing an additional 1,165,845 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EW has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Edwards Lifesciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.45.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 400 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.48, for a total value of $27,792.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 22,588 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,414.24. The trade was a 1.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Bernard J. Zovighian sold 6,164 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.51, for a total value of $428,459.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 59,083 shares in the company, valued at $4,106,859.33. This represents a 9.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 71,853 shares of company stock valued at $5,163,062 over the last ninety days. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Up 0.5 %

Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $75.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 3.46 and a quick ratio of 2.89. The company’s 50-day moving average is $71.17 and its 200-day moving average is $71.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.42 billion, a PE ratio of 10.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.82 and a beta of 1.15. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a fifty-two week low of $58.93 and a fifty-two week high of $95.25.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.04. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 72.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.45 earnings per share 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.