Topic: How To Invest

Q: I am looking for your advice on whether to buy Edwards Lifesciences? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Edwards Lifesciences, $83.54, symbol EW on New York (Shares outstanding: 621.7 million; Market cap: $51.6 billion; www.edwards.com) is focused on developing technologies and products that treat structural heart disease and critically ill patients. The company operates in four segments: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (63% of revenue), Surgical Structural Heart (19%), Critical Care (17%), and Transcatheter Mitral and Tricuspid (1%). Medical-device supplier Baxter International (symbol BAX on New York) spun off Edwards Lifesciences in March 2000. Baxter shareholders received one share of Edwards Lifesciences stock for every five shares of Baxter stock they owned. We first recommended Baxter in our December 1999 inaugural issue of Wall Street Stock Forecaster and it’s still a pick of that newsletter. Edwards is a leader in a procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR. The procedure allows for patients with aortic stenosis (narrowing of the valves) to have a heart valve replaced via a catheter. That removes the need for full open-heart surgery, and it…