Edwards Lifesciences Corporation EW is expected to report fourth-quarter 2024 results shortly.

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In the last reported quarter, the company’s adjusted earnings per share of 67 cents were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company’s earnings beat estimates in one of the trailing four quarters and matched estimates in the other three. EW has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 0.78% on average.

Q4 Estimates

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s fourth-quarter 2024 revenues is pegged at $1.36 billion, suggesting an 11.2% decline from the year-ago reported figure.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter 2024 net earnings of 55 cents per share indicates a 14.1% drop from the year-ago reported figure.

For the fourth quarter of 2024, the company projected total sales to be between $1.33 billion and $1.39 billion. It expects adjusted EPS in the band of 53 cents to 57 cents.

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation price-eps-surprise | Edwards Lifesciences Corporation Quote

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has been unchanged over the past 30 days.

Factors at Play

Similar to the last reported quarter, Edwards Lifesciences is likely to have gained from its patient-focused innovation strategy. A favorable hospitalization trend, strong global adoption of transcatheter heart valves and improved procedural volume are expected to have driven growth in the fourth quarter. However, the absence of Critical Care business operation through September is likely to have impacted the full fourth-quarter total revenues of Edwards Life Sciences.

On Sept. 3, 2024, the company announced the completion of the sell-off of the Critical Care product group to Becton, Dickinson and Company or BD, for a total value of $4.2 billion. This business recorded full-quarter revenues of $246 million in the second quarter of 2024, reflecting 7% year-over-year growth. The absence of this segment for an entire quarter is expected to have a significant impact on the company's fourth-quarter revenues on a year-over-year basis.

Within the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) arm, Edwards Lifesciences is likely to have witnessed continued growth in procedures across the United States and worldwide. Continued strong demand for the company’s SAPIEN platform is expected to have acted as the primary growth factor. SAPIEN currently constitutes the majority of the company’s sales within the United States.

However, at the time of the third-quarter earnings release, the company talked about certain regional pressures hampering growth within the segment. In the third quarter, in Japan, slower market growth put pressure on results. This might have continued even in the fourth quarter.

For the fourth quarter, EW’s earlier-provided guidance assumed year-over-year TAVR growth below the full-year TAVR growth expectation of 5% to 7%. One of the reasons behind this was a tough year-over-year comparison. Further, the impact from hurricanes in the southeast, as well as a one-time impact from a China distributor rebate adjustment during the to-be-reported quarter are expected to have impacted the performance within TAVR.

The company’s Transcatheter Mitral and Tricuspid Therapies (TMTT) segment’s PASCAL platform is likely to have maintained strong growth momentum in the fourth quarter globally, backed by its portfolio of differentiated therapies, positive pivotal trial results to support approvals and adoption and favorable real-world clinical outcomes. The TMTT segment’s performance is expected to have been driven by the strong adoption of the differentiated PASCAL Precision platform across the United States and Europe. Further, the company is expected to have gained business with the continued adoption of the EVOQUE tricuspid replacement system and the strong performance of the SAPIEN M3 mitral replacement system in the United States and Europe.

Our model estimates the Transcatheter Heart Valves business to report revenues of $1.10 billion, implying a 5.9% improvement from the year-ago period.

Within Surgical Structural Heart, the company is expected to have recorded strong fourth-quarter growth, banking on the penetration of its premium products across all regions.

Edwards Lifesciences is likely to have gained from strong global adoption of its premium RESILIA technology and improvement in procedural volumes. Edwards Lifesciences is expected to have seen strong global adoption of premium surgical technologies, including the MITRIS RESILIA valve, INSPIRIS and KONECT. In the fourth quarter, the company is expected to have witnessed procedure growth globally within Surgical.

Our model estimates the segment’s fourth-quarter revenues to be $264.8 million, suggesting a 6.7% rise from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

However, staffing shortages, which reduced hospital capacity, and choppy market conditions due to a difficult geopolitical situation are likely to have impeded the company’s growth in the quarter to be reported.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts

Per our proven model, stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) have a good chance of beating estimates. This is not the case here, as you can see:

Earnings ESP: Edwards Lifesciences has an Earnings ESP of -0.03%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Stocks Worth a Look

Here are a few medical stocks worth considering, as these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

Masimo MASI has an Earnings ESP of +4.05% and a Zacks Rank #1. The company is set to release fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 25. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

MASI’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 17.10%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s fourth-quarter EPS implies an increase of 14.4% from the year-ago quarter reported figure.

Merit Medical Systems MMSI has an Earnings ESP of +3.03% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is slated to release fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 25.

MMSI’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 6.42%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Merit Medical’s fourth-quarter earnings implies an increase of 2.5% from the year-ago quarter figure.

Cencora COR has an Earnings ESP of +0.71% and a Zacks Rank #2. The company is set to release first-quarter fiscal 2025 results on Feb. 2.

The company’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 2.45%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for COR’s first-quarter EPS suggests an increase of 7% from the year-ago reported figure.

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Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (EW) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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