Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (EW)

Just listened to the EW conference call, management mentioned several times that there are a number of "tailwinds" going into next year that will drive their sales/eps growth and mentioned they expects margins to improve and costs to go down. They have $1.2 Billion overseas that they can not currently use for buybacks but are trying to figure out a way to do that. They will be buying back stock and reducing share count when the opportunity presents itself(maybe tomorrow?) and expect continued strong growth as more trial data comes out in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in medium to lower risk populations. The company will present some innovative new products that they will expect will drive growth and new opportunities at their Analyst Day in December. They reiterated guidance and said everything is on track.

It seems like a no brainer that EW will continue to grow strongly as TAVR replaces open heart surgery, which is more expensive, riskier, and has much greater recovery time. What do you think patients would prefer?? To get their chest sawed in half or to have a small incision and no actual surgery with EW's device?? They will pick TAVR EVERY single time and EW is the dominant player in the field