STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) Shares Up 7.6% on Analyst Upgrade

STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA)’s stock price was up 7.6% on Tuesday after Stifel Nicolaus upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. Stifel Nicolaus now has a $31.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $28.00. STAAR Surgical traded as high as $22.84 and last traded at $22.4510. 176,364 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 1,156,635 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.87.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on STAA. William Blair set a $33.00 price target on shares of STAAR Surgical in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Veritas Investment Research set a $31.00 target price on shares of STAAR Surgical in a report on Tuesday. Zacks Research lowered shares of STAAR Surgical from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of STAAR Surgical from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their target price on shares of STAAR Surgical from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, STAAR Surgical has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.45.

Institutional Trading of STAAR Surgical

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Broadwood Capital Inc. grew its stake in STAAR Surgical by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Broadwood Capital Inc. now owns 15,019,491 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $346,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500,000 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of STAAR Surgical by 105.3% in the fourth quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 2,472,390 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $57,087,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268,019 shares during the last quarter. American Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of STAAR Surgical by 18.7% during the first quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 878,035 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $16,419,000 after purchasing an additional 138,499 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in STAAR Surgical by 39.1% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 820,782 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $15,348,000 after buying an additional 230,582 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in STAAR Surgical in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,578,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.70% of the company’s stock.

STAAR Surgical Trading Up 7.6%

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.13. The company has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a PE ratio of 320.93 and a beta of 1.21.

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $93.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.60 million. STAAR Surgical had a net margin of 1.13% and a return on equity of 9.05%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 111.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.34) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that STAAR Surgical Company will post 0.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

STAAR Surgical announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 24th that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the medical instruments supplier to repurchase up to 5.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About STAAR Surgical

STAAR Surgical Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells implantable lenses for the eye, and companion delivery systems to deliver the lenses into the eye. The company provides implantable Collamer lens product family (ICLs) to treat visual disorders, such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. It markets its products to health care providers, including ophthalmic surgeons, vision and surgical centers, hospitals, government facilities, and distributors, as well as products are primarily used by ophthalmologists.