Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. is in the process of adding more office space and a large parking structure that will help clear room for more green space as part of its headquarters modernization plan.
Edwards filed plans with Irvine city officials calling for a new, two-story building with 36,600 square feet of space on its campus. A four-story parking structure will have 1,208 parking spaces.
“It’s part of our overall campus upgrade program that we’re working on,” said Sarah Huoh, a spokesperson for Edwards.
The device maker is looking to add new amenities and modernize its campus on a building-by-building basis. It aims to give its headquarters a more “campus-like feel,” Huoh said.
Edwards did not disclose a cost or give a specific timeline on the project, which is part of a larger plan. The new office will be built in place of a recently demolished portion of a building on McGaw Avenue.
The company’s plans have already been approved by the city of Irvine. City planners recently sent a letter to David Robbins, Edwards’ senior director of global construction, informing him that company’s plans are not considered “major” and did not require a public hearing.
The parking structure will supplant a parking lot in the back of Edwards’ campus that’s slated to be converted to green space that could be used by the company’s employees for things such as meetings, as a lunch spot, or other uses.
Edwards employs nearly 2,600 people in Irvine and more than 8,000 companywide.
Redwood City-based Rudolph and Sletten Inc. is the general contractor.
Separately, Zacks Investor Service recently upgraded its rating on Edwards to neutral from underperform based on recent 2013 guidance.
Edwards could see $370.5 million to $382.1 million in profit this year, based on its forecasts on a per-share basis.
The company sees its sales coming in at $2.1 billion to $2.2 billion this year.
Edwards will release its fourth-quarter and 2012 financial results on Feb. 4. Analysts expect the device maker to post a profit of $88.9 million on sales of $498 million for the quarter. Those totals would put its full-year earnings for 2012 at about $291 million on sales of nearly $1.9 billion, both up by double digits from the year prior.
The company’s performance last year didn’t wow Wall Street, where Edwards notched steady gains as it hit regulatory milestones on the way to bringing its Edwards Sapien less-invasive replacement heart valve to the U.S. market. The product debuted domestically in late 2011, and Edwards’ shares rose steadily through most of 2012, to a peak of about $110 in October with a market value of about $12.7 billion.
• Headquarters: Irvine
• Business: Heart valves
• Founded: 1999
• Ticker symbol: EW (NYSE)
• 2011 revenue: $1.68 billion
• Recent earnings: $69.2 million in Q3
• Market value: About $10.56 billion
• Notable: In process of upgrade to headquarters; reports year-end 2012 results Feb. 4
Tough Day
The company’s shares tumbled to around $85 on a lowered outlook for third-quarter sales, with much of the hit coming on a single day that saw $2.5 billion in market value erased. Edwards’ shares have since gone back up to around $91, bringing its market value to $10.7 billion and cautious optimism among some analysts.
“While the recent results led to [a] lower, dull outlook for 2012 for Edwards Lifesciences, we expect the company to turn the tables in 2013,” Zacks said in its report.
Zacks said it was “upbeat” about Edwards’ performance based on what it characterized as “positive earnings surprises” in the last four quarters.
Zacks did raise some concerns, particularly about European economic problems and headwinds over foreign exchange.
“To overcome these challenges, the company plans to expand its foothold in other lucrative markets on the heels of product approvals,” Zacks said.
Edwards told attendees at its recent investor day that it would introduce its Edwards Sapien XT less-invasive replacement heart valve in Japan by the end of 2013. Edwards Sapien XT, which is inserted via catheter, is designed for patients who can’t have open-heart surgery for treating aortic stenosis, or a narrowing of the body’s main artery.
Japan “is a wonderful opportunity for transcatheter valves, and it’s evidenced by just some of the differences we see in the market,” Larry Wood, Edwards’ vice president, transcatheter valve replacement, said in an earlier interview.
Wood said that doctors in Japan tended to perform percutaneous, or under-the-skin, coronary interventions rather than surgical coronary artery bypass grafting. He said that indicated a preference for less-invasive procedures such as transcatheter heart valve replacement.
“We know that [aortic valve replacement] is undertreated in Japan, and a larger percentage of their population is over the age of 80 compared to the United States,” he said. “So we think this is going to be a great opportunity. But our full launch won’t happen until after we get the reimbursement approval.”
