STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

STAA has been the subject of several other research reports. Veritas Investment Research set a $31.00 price objective on STAAR Surgical in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of STAAR Surgical in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Zacks Research raised STAAR Surgical from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 19th. UBS Group set a $34.00 price target on STAAR Surgical in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush cut their price target on STAAR Surgical from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, STAAR Surgical currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.00.

STAAR Surgical Price Performance

Shares of STAA opened at $25.21 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of -2,521,000.00 and a beta of 1.22. STAAR Surgical has a one year low of $15.59 and a one year high of $35.87. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $22.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.66.

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.06. STAAR Surgical had a net margin of 0.16% and a return on equity of 8.43%. The firm had revenue of $83.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.73 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that STAAR Surgical will post 0.39 earnings per share for the current year.

STAAR Surgical announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 24th that authorizes the company to buy back $50 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the medical instruments supplier to purchase up to 5.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in STAA. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of STAAR Surgical in the third quarter valued at about $66,000. Ascentis Independent Advisors bought a new position in STAAR Surgical during the first quarter valued at about $77,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in STAAR Surgical by 2,867.1% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 11,008 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 10,637 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in STAAR Surgical during the second quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new position in STAAR Surgical in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.70% of the company’s stock.

STAAR Surgical Company Profile

STAAR Surgical is a medical device company focused on ophthalmic surgery and vision correction. The company develops, manufactures and markets implantable lenses and related products designed to reduce or eliminate dependence on glasses or contact lenses.

Its principal product line is the EVO Visian Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL), a lens implanted inside the eye to correct myopia, with or without astigmatism. Unlike procedures that remove corneal tissue, ICL surgery preserves the eye’s natural lens and is designed to be removable.