Edwards Lifesciences

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation is the global leader in patient-focused innovations for structural heart disease and critical care monitoring. The Company partners with the world’s leading clinicians and researchers and aggressively invests in research and development to transform care for structural heart disease and critically ill patients. A pioneer in the development of heart valve therapies, the Company is the world’s leading manufacturer of heart valve systems and repair products used to replace or repair a patient’s diseased or defective heart valve. Their innovative work in heart valves encompasses both surgical and transcatheter therapies for heart valve replacement. They are also the global leader in hemodynamic monitoring systems used to measure a patient’s cardiovascular function in the hospital setting.
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Cardiovascular disease is the number-one cause of death in the world, and is the top disease in terms of health care spending in nearly every country. Cardiovascular disease is progressive in that it tends to worsen over time and often affects the structure of an individual’s heart.
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Patients undergoing treatment for cardiovascular disease can be treated with a number of the Company's medical technologies. For example, an individual with a heart valve disorder may have a faulty valve that is affecting the function of their heart or blood flow throughout their body. A clinician may elect to remove the valve and replace it with one of the Company's bioprosthetic surgical tissue heart valves, surgically re-shape and repair the faulty valve with the Company's annuloplasty ring, or implant the Company's transcatheter valve via a catheter-based system that does not require traditional open-heart surgery and can be done while the heart continues to beat.

​Patients in the hospital setting, including high-risk patients in the operating room or intensive care unit, are candidates for having their cardiac function or fluid levels monitored by the Company's Critical Care products. These technologies enable proactive clinical decisions and may be important for improving diagnoses and developing individualized therapeutic management plans for patients. 

​Edwards Lifesciences Corporation provides products and technologies to treat structural heart disease and critically ill patients worldwide. It offers transcatheter heart valve therapy products comprising transcatheter aortic heart valves and their delivery systems for the nonsurgical replacement of heart valves. The company also provides surgical heart valve therapy products, such as pericardial valves for aortic and mitral replacement, and minimally invasive aortic heart valve system; and tissue heart valves and repair products, which are used to replace or repair a patient's diseased or defective heart valve. In addition, it produces pericardial valves from biologically inert animal tissue; and provides heart valve repair therapies, including annuloplasty rings and systems. Further, the company offers critical care products, such as hemodynamic monitoring systems to measure a patient's heart function in surgical and intensive care settings; pulmonary artery catheters; and Oximetry Central Venous Catheters for continuous measurement of central venous oxygen saturation. Additionally, its critical care products include disposable pressure monitoring devices and closed blood sampling systems to protect patients and clinicians from infection; and peripheral vascular products used to treat endolumenal occlusive disease, such as embolectomy catheters for removing blood clots from peripheral blood vessels. The company distributes its products through direct sales force and independent distributors. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.
(Summary) (Company) (Chart)

4 September 2017
Price $113.31
1yr Target $139.80
Analysts 20
Dividend $0.00
Payout Ratio 0.00%

1yr Cap Gain 23.37%
Yield 0.00%
1yr Tot Return 23.37%

P/E 34.32
PEG 2.10
Beta 0.65

EPS (ttm) $3.30
EPS next yr $4.18
Forward P/E 27.08
EPS next 5yr 16.38%
1yr Price Support $68.46

Market Cap $23.85 Bil
Revenues $3.23 Bil
Earnings $716.20 Mil
Profit Margin 22.16%

Quick Ratio 3.20
Current Ratio 4.10
Debt/Equity 0.35

1yr RevGR 18.85%
3yr RevGR 13.01%
5yr RevGR 12.04%

1yr EarnGR 16.00%
3yr EarnGR 14.97%
5yr EarnGR 21.39%

1yr DivGR ---
3yr DivGR ---
5yr DivGR ---

ROA 15.30%
ROE 26.10%

Edwards Lifesciences’ Product and Technology Offerings 

The following are the main areas of products and technologies that the Company offers to treat advanced cardiovascular disease. They are categorized into three main areas: Transcatheter Heart Valve Therapy, Surgical Heart Valve Therapy, and Critical Care. 
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Transcatheter Heart Valve Therapy

Edwards Lifesciences is a global leader in transcatheter heart valve replacement technologies designed for the nonsurgical replacement of heart valves. The Edwards SAPIEN family of valves, including Edwards SAPIEN XT and Edwards SAPIEN 3 transcatheter aortic heart valves and their respective delivery systems, are used to treat heart valve disease using catheter-based approaches for certain patients for whom traditional open-heart surgery is not optimal. Delivered while the heart is beating, these valves can enable patients to experience a better quality of life sooner than patients receiving traditional surgical therapies. The Company began offering transcatheter heart valves to patients commercially in Europe in 2007, in the United States in 2011, and in Japan in 2013. As of December 31, 2016, the transcatheter aortic heart valves were available in more than 65 countries. Supported by extensive customer training and service, and a growing body of compelling clinical evidence, the SAPIEN family of transcatheter aortic heart valves are the most widely prescribed transcatheter heart valves in the world.

Sales of the Company's transcatheter heart valves represented 55%, 47%, and 41% of net sales in 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively.

Surgical Heart Valve Therapy

The core of the Company's surgical tissue heart valve product line is the Carpentier-Edwards PERIMOUNT pericardial valve platform, including the line of PERIMOUNT Magna Ease pericardial valves for aortic and mitral surgical valve replacement. With more long-term clinical publications on durability and performance than any other surgical valve, PERIMOUNT valves are the most widely implanted surgical tissue heart valves in the world. The Company's EDWARDS INTUITY Elite Valve System, available in Europe, the United States, and certain other geographies, is a minimally invasive aortic heart valve system designed to enable faster procedures, shorter patient times on cardiopulmonary bypass, and smaller incisions. In addition to the Company's replacement valves, Edwards Lifesciences pioneered and is the worldwide leader in surgical heart valve repair therapies, including annuloplasty rings and systems. The Company is also the global leader in cardiac cannula devices and offer a variety of innovative procedure-enabling platforms to advance minimally invasive surgery.

Sales of the Company's surgical tissue heart valve products represented 23%, 28%, and 31% of net sales in 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively.

Critical Care

Edwards Lifesciences is a world leader in hemodynamic monitoring systems used to measure a patient’s heart function and fluid status in surgical and intensive care settings. Hemodynamic monitoring enables a clinician to balance the supply and demand of oxygen in critically ill patients, and plays an important role in enhancing surgical recovery by enabling appropriate tissue and organ perfusion, and ultimately enabling the improvement of patient outcomes and survival. The Company's hemodynamic monitoring technologies are used before, during, and after surgeries, such as open-heart, major vascular, major abdominal, neurological, and orthopedic surgical procedures; as well as for acutely ill patients with conditions such as sepsis, shock, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and multi-organ failure.

Edwards’ complete hemodynamic portfolio helps clinicians make proactive clinical decisions for their patients, and includes the minimally invasive FloTrac system and the noninvasive ClearSight system. The Company's hemodynamic monitoring portfolio also comprises the Swan-Ganz line of pulmonary artery catheters and the Edwards Oximetry Central Venous Catheters for continuous measurement of central venous oxygen saturation. The EV1000 clinical monitoring platform displays a patient’s physiological status and integrates many of the sensors and catheters into one platform, giving clinicians multiple options to meet their clinical and patient needs.

Edwards Lifesciences is also the global leader in disposable pressure monitoring devices and innovative closed blood sampling systems to help protect both patients and clinicians from the risk of infection.

They manufacture and sell a variety of peripheral vascular products used to treat endolumenal occlusive disease, including the Fogarty line of embolectomy catheters, which has been an industry standard for removing blood clots from peripheral blood vessels for more than 40 years.

​Sales of the Company's core hemodynamic products represented 12%, 13%, and 15% of net sales in 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively. 

My Perspective

There's no doubt that by most measures this stock is expensive. Most quality company's stock is expensive and this is no exception. Edwards Lifesciences is a leader in the treatment of structural heart disease and I like to invest in leaders. I intend to initiate a position in this company in the very near future but I'm going to try to get it as cheaply as possible. To me, that means a price at or below $110 per share. At the price the one year estimated capital gain would increase to 27% and that's a very nice return for a large capitalization company. 

I also think this company will remain the leader in this area so I believe it will maintain its premium pricing. I also believe the price of these shares will increase along with the earnings growth rate of over 16% and that's the kind of return I would like from all my investments.