Edwards Lifesciences maintained full-year financial forecasts on Wednesday, projecting sales of its heart valves would offset hits from tariff and acquisition costs.
First-quarter sales of transcatheter aortic valve replacements, Edwards’ largest business, were better than the company expected, executives said on an earnings call.
Edwards’ TAVR sales were stifled last year by capacity constraints as heart teams performed more mitral and tricuspid valve procedures with the company’s newest devices. Hospitals are now addressing capacity issues by expanding capabilities for handling increased volumes, said Larry Wood, group president of TAVR and surgical structural heart.
Those investments will be important in the long term, he said, because Edwards anticipates new indications for its technologies to expand the pool of patients eligible for treatment. Edwards expects Food and Drug Administration approval in the second quarter for an expanded indication for its Sapien TAVR device in asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis patients.
Wood added that hospitals are now “more in tune with what the requirements are going to be.”
Edwards maintained its full-year sales growth outlook range of 8% to 10% and adjusted earnings per share forecast range of $2.40 to $2.50. Executives said the company has plans in place to offset the impact of the weakening dollar, tariffs and the expected midyear close of its JenaValve acquisition.
Tariff and M&A costs
CFO Scott Ullem pegged the impact from the Trump administration’s 10% baseline tariffs on per-share earnings at 5 cents this year and the JenaValve impact at 5 to 10 cents.
In July, Edwards agreed to pay $1.2 billion combined to buy JenaValve, which is developing a treatment for aortic regurgitation, and Endotronix, maker of an implantable pulmonary artery pressure sensor for heart failure.
The company operates “a handful” of manufacturing facilities in key business regions, but most of its production is in the U.S., Ullem said. Edwards could see a bigger impact from tariffs in 2026, the CFO noted.
BTIG analyst Marie Thibault said Edwards continued the theme of most medtech companies this earnings season by reaffirming profit forecasts and maintaining or raising sales outlooks, despite pressure from the Trump administration's tariff policies.
“We like that [Edwards] can shrug off tariff impacts” to hold its 2025 outlook in place, Thibault wrote in a Wednesday note to clients.
