Earnings

Edwards Lifesciences Lifts 2026 Sales Growth Forecast To About 11.5% On 10.5% Third-Quarter Gain

The heart valve maker also raised its aortic, mitral-tricuspid and adjusted earnings outlooks after sales reached $1.72 billion.

Matteo Parrino Jonathan Ponciano

Matteo Parrino, Jonathan Ponciano

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Edwards Lifesciences Lifts 2026 Sales Growth Forecast To About 11.5% On 10.5% Third-Quarter Gain

Edwards Lifesciences, which makes heart valves and related devices for structural heart disease, raised its full-year sales growth forecast to about 11.5% from a prior range of 10% to 11%, the company said Wednesday as third-quarter sales rose 10.5% to $1.72 billion. CEO Bernard Zovighian said the quarter's growth "exceeded expectations."

Mitral and tricuspid lead the growth

Sales rose 11.2% in constant currency, which strips out currency swings. Transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies jumped 44.0% to $207 million, or 45.6% in constant currency, and the company said procedure volumes there kept growing in the double digits.

Aortic valve replacement, by far the biggest line, grew 8.0% to $1.24 billion, or 8.8% in constant currency. Surgical valve sales rose 2.5% to $264 million.

Zovighian said the 11.2% constant-currency growth was "strong" and gave the company "the confidence to raise our full-year outlook." Edwards said growth rates were similar in the U.S. and abroad, and that average selling prices were stable globally.

Earnings: $0.80 adjusted, $0.53 reported

Adjusted earnings per share were $0.80, up 19% from a year earlier. Earnings per share under standard accounting were $0.53, after a $220.2 million charge for impairment of an in-process research and development asset and fixed assets acquired in an acquisition.

Adjusted gross margin was 78.7%, against 77.9% a year earlier. Edwards ended September with about $3.1 billion in cash and about $600 million of debt.

Raised outlook and a $1.3 billion buyback pool

Edwards raised its aortic sales growth guidance to 9.0% to 9.5% from 8% to 9%. It lifted mitral and tricuspid sales guidance to $780 million to $790 million from $760 million to $780 million, and adjusted EPS guidance to $2.97 to $3.05 from $2.95 to $3.05.

For the fourth quarter, it projects sales of $1.67 billion to $1.75 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.61 to $0.69. The company assumes growth will come mainly from rising procedure volumes and less from share gains.

The company has bought back about $700 million of stock through the third quarter and has about $1.3 billion left under its repurchase authorization. It also noted FDA approval in October of its PASCAL Precision system for tricuspid regurgitation.

Edwards was set to discuss the results on a conference call at 2:00 p.m. PT Wednesday.

Sources

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