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

Key Points

• STAAR Surgical shares rose 7.6% after Stifel Nicolaus upgraded the stock from “hold” to “buy” and raised its price target from $28 to $31.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: four analysts rate the stock a buy, six a hold, and three a sell, producing a consensus “Hold” rating and a $28.45 target price.
• The company reported quarterly earnings and revenue above estimates, with revenue up 111.1% year over year, and authorized a $50 million share repurchase program covering up to 5.2% of outstanding shares.

STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA - Get Free Report)'s share price rose 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 traded 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.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on STAA. Wedbush decreased their price target on STAAR Surgical from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Zacks Research lowered STAAR Surgical from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on STAAR Surgical from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. William Blair set a $33.00 target price on STAAR Surgical in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut STAAR Surgical from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned 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.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On STAAR Surgical

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Broadwood Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of STAAR Surgical by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Broadwood Capital Inc. now owns 15,019,491 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $346,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500,000 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC increased its stake in STAAR Surgical by 105.3% in the 4th quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 2,472,390 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $57,087,000 after buying an additional 1,268,019 shares during the period. American Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in STAAR Surgical in the 2nd quarter worth about $24,291,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in STAAR Surgical by 39.1% in the 1st 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 period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in STAAR Surgical in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,578,000. Institutional investors own 96.70% of the company's stock.

STAAR Surgical Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 320.93 and a beta of 1.21. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $23.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.13.

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $93.53 million during 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 company's revenue was up 111.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.34) earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that STAAR Surgical Company will post 0.39 earnings per share for the current year.

STAAR Surgical declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 24th that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the medical instruments supplier to reacquire up to 5.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

STAAR Surgical Company Profile

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.