STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) Upgraded at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $31.00 target price on the medical instruments supplier’s stock, up from their prior target price of $28.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. 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. Weiss Ratings raised STAAR Surgical from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered STAAR Surgical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on STAAR Surgical from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, Veritas Investment Research set a $31.00 target price on STAAR Surgical in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, STAAR Surgical presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.45.

STAAR Surgical Price Performance

NASDAQ STAA opened at $22.38 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 319.76 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s fifty day moving average is $23.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.22. STAAR Surgical has a 52-week low of $15.59 and a 52-week high of $35.87.

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

STAAR Surgical declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 24th that allows the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the medical instruments supplier to buy up to 5.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On STAAR Surgical

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Broadwood Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $346,800,000 after buying an additional 1,500,000 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC grew its position in 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 valued at $57,087,000 after acquiring an additional 1,268,019 shares during the period. American Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in STAAR Surgical in the second quarter valued at $24,291,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew 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 acquiring an additional 230,582 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in STAAR Surgical during the second quarter worth $6,578,000. 96.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.