Principal Financial Group Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Edwards Lifesciences Corporation $EW

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group increased its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, bringing its total holding to 821,825 shares valued at about $70.1 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains positive overall, with Edwards Lifesciences carrying a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $95.65 across analysts.
• The company beat quarterly expectations by reporting EPS of $0.78 on revenue of $1.65 billion, while also issuing FY 2026 guidance of $2.95 to $3.05 EPS.

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW - Free Report) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 821,825 shares of the medical research company's stock after buying an additional 16,583 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.14% of Edwards Lifesciences worth $70,061,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 278.3% in the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 5,584,646 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $434,318,000 after acquiring an additional 4,108,270 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Edwards Lifesciences during the 3rd quarter valued at $238,688,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 19.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 13,958,774 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,085,574,000 after purchasing an additional 2,287,783 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,010,227 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,478,425,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423,365 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 114.5% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,081,346 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $161,055,000 after buying an additional 1,111,139 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.46% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $110.00 target price on Edwards Lifesciences and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $94.00 price objective on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $95.00 target price on shares of Edwards Lifesciences and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $95.65.

Edwards Lifesciences Stock Down 0.5%

Edwards Lifesciences stock opened at $82.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a current ratio of 3.72. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $82.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $82.74. The company has a market cap of $47.71 billion, a PE ratio of 44.01, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.87. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $72.30 and a fifty-two week high of $87.89.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.05. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 15.17% and a net margin of 17.39%.The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.60 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Edwards Lifesciences has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.700-0.760 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences Corporation will post 3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Daniel J. Lippis sold 1,019 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.01, for a total value of $84,587.19. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 33,934 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,816,861.34. This represents a 2.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Donald E. Bobo, Jr. sold 24,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.84, for a total transaction of $2,012,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 21,266 shares in the company, valued at $1,782,941.44. The trade was a 53.02% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 88,096 shares of company stock worth $7,288,799. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Company Profile

Edwards Lifesciences is a medical technology company focused on products and therapies for structural heart disease and critical care monitoring. The company designs, develops and manufactures prosthetic heart valves and related delivery systems used in both surgical and minimally invasive (transcatheter) procedures. Its portfolio addresses a range of valvular conditions, with an emphasis on technologies that enable transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as an alternative to open-heart surgery.

In addition to transcatheter heart valves—including the widely recognized SAPIEN family—Edwards offers surgical tissue valves and ancillary devices used by cardiac surgeons, interventional cardiologists and hospital teams.

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