Seeking Alpha: TAVR Is Real (And Maybe Spectacular), But Edwards Lifesciences Isn't A Bargain

Once again I seem to have underestimated how Wall Street's love of a good story can overpower and outweigh the likely long-term economic returns from that story. In the case of Edwards Lifesciences (EW), I have never doubted that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) (also called "... valve implantation" or TAVI) was going to be successful, nor that Edwards' Sapien would be a major player.

What I doubted was whether Wall Street would keep pumping up the valuation it was willing to pay. With Edwards being one of the relatively few double-digit organic growth stories in med-tech, the stock is up about 30% since my last skeptical piece - not all that much better than other med-tech names like Medtronic (MDT) or Boston Scientific (BSX) in what has been a strong med-tech market, but 30% is 30%. Even still, while I have no problem forecasting double-digit free cash flow growth for Edwards, I still don't see a compelling valuation here.

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TAVR Is Real (And Maybe Spectacular), But Edwards Lifesciences Isn't A Bargain