STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $29.49, but opened at $31.32. STAAR Surgical shares last traded at $28.75, with a volume of 154,682 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on STAA. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of STAAR Surgical from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of STAAR Surgical from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of STAAR Surgical in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on shares of STAAR Surgical from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of STAAR Surgical from $46.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, STAAR Surgical has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.57.

STAAR Surgical Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of 86.74 and a beta of 0.59. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $32.06 and its 200 day moving average is $38.76.

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $99.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $95.22 million. STAAR Surgical had a return on equity of 5.60% and a net margin of 4.99%. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that STAAR Surgical will post 0.16 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at STAAR Surgical

In other news, Director Arthur C. Butcher purchased 1,315 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $37.99 per share, for a total transaction of $49,956.85. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,861.92. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On STAAR Surgical

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STAA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in STAAR Surgical by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,468,710 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $170,678,000 after buying an additional 43,083 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in STAAR Surgical by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 290,243 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $11,111,000 after buying an additional 8,696 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its holdings in STAAR Surgical by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 42,577 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,630,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Defender Capital LLC. raised its holdings in STAAR Surgical by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Defender Capital LLC. now owns 730,387 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $27,959,000 after buying an additional 7,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in STAAR Surgical by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 77,100 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $2,951,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. 96.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.