Edwards Lifesciences Lifts 2026 Outlook After 11.2% Sales Jump

Edwards Lifesciences raised its full-year sales and earnings guidance after third-quarter revenue climbed 11.2% to $1.72 billion, with adjusted earnings of $0.80 per share beating management's expectations across heart-valve businesses and regions.

The medical device maker now expects full-year sales growth of roughly 11.5% and adjusted earnings of $2.97 to $3.05 per share. At the midpoint, that earnings forecast represents 18% growth from the prior year, CFO Doretta Mistras said. The company's growth commentary generally refers to underlying sales growth (a measure stripping out currency and divestment effects) from continuing operations.

CEO Bernard Zovighian said the performance reflected continued strength in transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR (a minimally invasive procedure to implant a heart valve via catheter), plus growing contributions from mitral and tricuspid therapies.

The takeaway: Edwards beat its own bar and paid investors forward with a higher 2026 forecast.

What drove the TAVR number?

Third-quarter TAVR sales rose 8.8% to $1.2 billion, again exceeding expectations. Zovighian said growth rates were similar in and outside the U.S., and average selling prices were stable globally.

Edwards raised its full-year TAVR growth forecast to 9% to 9.5%. But the growth mix is shifting. Management expects future gains to come primarily from procedure volumes rather than market-share wins, because benefits from prior competitive changes have already been absorbed.

Dan Lippis, Edwards' global leader of TAVR, quantified that tailwind: the company benefited for more than four quarters from Boston Scientific's exit from Europe and other non-U.S. markets in May 2025. That effect has now been fully annualized, he said, while Edwards' competitive position has been sequentially stable over the past two quarters.

Zovighian told analysts the changed growth mix is not a signal that TAVR growth will slow next year. He expects the U.S. Medicare coverage policy update and the asymptomatic indication to build gradually over time, with more detail on 2027 coming at Edwards' December investor conference.

In plain terms: the easy share gains are done, and volumes have to carry the load from here.

What do the clinical data and coverage changes mean?

Management highlighted the PROGRESS trial, which studied TAVR in patients with moderate aortic stenosis (narrowing of the heart's aortic valve) and at-risk features. Zovighian said the results support earlier intervention. Lippis added that identifying at-risk patients will require more advanced assessment than routine surveillance in many community settings.

Edwards does not yet have an indication for moderate aortic stenosis. Lippis declined to give a regulatory timeline, saying the company will discuss its thinking more broadly at the investor conference.

Zovighian also pointed to an updated U.S. national coverage determination for TAVR (Medicare's formal policy on what it reimburses). The policy expands coverage to asymptomatic patients, gives heart teams greater flexibility and provides a pathway for Medicare contractors to address future indications once approved.

Longer term, Edwards still targets mid- to high-single-digit TAVR growth. Zovighian expects some share loss over a 10-year horizon as competition increases, but he expects market expansion to more than offset it.

How fast are mitral and tricuspid therapies growing?

Fast. Sales in Edwards' transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies business rose 45.6% to $207 million. The company lifted its full-year outlook for the unit to $780 million to $790 million and reiterated its goal of $2 billion in revenue by 2030.

Recent approvals are stacking up:

• U.S. approval for PASCAL Precision to treat tricuspid regurgitation, completing the U.S. portfolio of mitral and tricuspid repair and replacement technologies.
• U.S. approval for PASCAL Ace with Capture Clarity for certain mitral repair procedures.
• The CLASP II TR pivotal trial met its six-month primary endpoint, showing PASCAL plus optimal medical therapy beat medical therapy alone in patients with severe or greater tricuspid regurgitation.
• Positive clinical data for the EVOQUE tricuspid replacement system and SAPIEN M3 mitral replacement therapy.

Surgical sales increased 3% to $264 million, driven by adoption of the RESILIA portfolio. Edwards kept its mid-single-digit full-year surgical growth expectation.

The takeaway: the structural heart franchise beyond TAVR is no longer a rounding error — it's a near-$800 million business growing at 45%.

What does the fourth quarter look like?

Edwards forecasts Q4 sales of $1.67 billion to $1.75 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.61 to $0.69 per share. Mistras said the guidance is intended to be appropriate and credible, and that the company guides to the midpoint of its ranges.

Third-quarter GAAP earnings were $0.53 per share, primarily reflecting impairment of a research and development asset. Adjusted gross margin improved to 78.7% from 77.9% a year earlier, helped by manufacturing efficiencies and foreign exchange, Mistras said.

The balance sheet is well stocked. Edwards ended September with roughly $3.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents. It repurchased approximately $700 million of shares through the third quarter, leaving about $1.3 billion under its authorization.

The company, headquartered in Irvine, California, traces its origins to 1958, when engineer Lowell Edwards and surgeon Albert Starr began developing an artificial heart valve — work that produced the Starr-Edwards valve in 1960.

One line to hold onto: volumes, not share gains, now drive the TAVR story, and Edwards has $3.1 billion in cash to keep buying its own stock while it plays out.