STAAR Surgical (STAA) Competitors

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) and ICU Medical (NASDAQ:ICUI) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, media sentiment, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Do analysts recommend STAA or ICUI?

STAAR Surgical currently has a consensus target price of $20.67, indicating a potential downside of 27.15%. ICU Medical has a consensus target price of $179.00, indicating a potential upside of 48.00%. Given ICU Medical's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ICU Medical is more favorable than STAAR Surgical.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
STAAR Surgical	0 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
ICU Medical	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media prefer STAA or ICUI?

In the previous week, ICU Medical had 9 more articles in the media than STAAR Surgical. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for ICU Medical and 7 mentions for STAAR Surgical. ICU Medical's average media sentiment score of 0.66 beat STAAR Surgical's score of 0.59 indicating that ICU Medical is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
STAAR Surgical	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ICU Medical	5 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals and insiders believe in STAA or ICUI?

96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of ICU Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of ICU Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, STAA or ICUI?

STAAR Surgical has higher earnings, but lower revenue than ICU Medical. ICU Medical is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than STAAR Surgical, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
STAAR Surgical	$313.90M	4.48	-$20.21M	-$1.93	-14.70
ICU Medical	$2.38B	1.25	-$117.69M	-$1.52	-79.57

Is STAA or ICUI more profitable?

ICU Medical has a net margin of -1.56% compared to STAAR Surgical's net margin of -42.45%. ICU Medical's return on equity of 7.24% beat STAAR Surgical's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
STAAR Surgical	-42.45%	-16.11%	-12.54%
ICU Medical	-1.56%	7.24%	3.50%

Which has more volatility and risk, STAA or ICUI?

STAAR Surgical has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ICU Medical has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ICU Medical beats STAAR Surgical on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.