A couple of comments from Edwards’ last quarterly earnings transcript (link below) that caught my eye:
And in TAVR, last month, we announced approval to begin selling the SAPIEN 3 Ultra RESILIA valve in the U.S. our industry-leading SAPIEN 3 Ultra transcatheter aortic heart valve now incorporates Edwards' breakthrough RESILIA technology. Additionally, during the third quarter, enrollment accelerated in our 2 TAVR pivotal trials, progress evaluating patients with moderate AS and Alliance for our next-generation TAVR technology, SAPIEN X4.
These transformative developments reinforce our confidence in the continued growth of transcatheter-based structural heart inventive. We will continue to aggressively pursue breakthrough technologies with the potential to help even a broader group of patients and in turn drive significant future value.
From the Q&A part of the quarterly call:
Vijay Kumar (Evercore ISI Analyst)
Understood. And maybe, Scott, one for you. I think that you have $2 billion of cash on the balance sheet. Why not announce a big ASR? I think your peer has done this. Just [indiscernible] market that Edwards still believes in the long-term underlying growth of TAVR markets. Clearly, there's some nervousness [indiscernible] the guide cut this evening?
Scott Ullem (Edwards Corporate VP & CFO)
Well, you're right. We have a lot of cash on the balance sheet. It gives us flexibility to invest for future growth. And so part of that is building additional physical infrastructure, supporting plant production capacity. Part of it is making sure that we're -- ability that we're able to fund external growth. And then yes, we're going to continue to buy back shares. And we've done accelerated share repurchases, including earlier this year. In total this year, it's been our biggest share repurchase year ever at over $800 million.
And so the only good thing about the stock price haven't been under pressure this year is it's given us a chance to go buy in shares, and we think that, that's going to be a great long-term investment. We're going to continue to look for opportunities to do that.
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)