STAAR Surgical (STAA) & The Competition Critical Review

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) is one of 511 public companies in the “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare STAAR Surgical to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for STAAR Surgical and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
STAAR Surgical	3	5	4	1	2.23
STAAR Surgical Competitors	4270	10537	18302	828	2.46

STAAR Surgical currently has a consensus target price of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 13.41%. As a group, “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” companies have a potential upside of 20.89%. Given STAAR Surgical’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe STAAR Surgical has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.5% of shares of all “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” companies are owned by institutional investors. 39.9% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 14.8% of shares of all “Healthcare Equipment & Supplies” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

STAAR Surgical has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, STAAR Surgical’s peers have a beta of 2.57, indicating that their average stock price is 157% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares STAAR Surgical and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
STAAR Surgical	0.16%	8.56%	6.60%
STAAR Surgical Competitors	-276.78%	-149.08%	-21.73%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares STAAR Surgical and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
STAAR Surgical	$339.59 million	-$80.45 million	N/A
STAAR Surgical Competitors	$1.89 billion	$137.77 million	9.69

STAAR Surgical’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than STAAR Surgical.

Summary

STAAR Surgical peers beat STAAR Surgical on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

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. The company sells its products directly through its sales representatives in the United States, Japan, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, as well as through own representatives and independent distributors in China, Korea, India, France, Benelux, Italy, and internationally. STAAR Surgical Company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, California.