San Ramon, California-based The Cooper Companies, Inc. (COO) develops, manufactures, and markets contact lenses for wearers. The company has a market cap of $14.9 billion and operates in two segments, CooperVision and CooperSurgical, and offers spherical, toric, and multifocal contact lenses that address vision challenges, such as astigmatism, presbyopia, and myopia, and more.
Shares of Cooper Companies have lagged behind the broader market over the past year, growing 1.6% compared to the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) 20.5% surge. Moreover, in 2026, the stock has fallen by nearly 6.7%, also underperforming SPX’s 12.1% gain.
Zooming in further, the State Street Healthcare Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) has risen 26.8% over the past year, outperforming the stock. In 2026, XLV has surged 13.2% and outpaced the stock.
Analysts are not too excited about COO stock due to a couple of reasons tied to the company’s performance. COO’s annual sales growth over the past two years has been nearly 6.5%, below the industry average for healthcare companies. Additionally, its sales growth is estimated to be 4.2% for the next year, indicating tepid demand, even lower than the last two years. Its returns on capital are also below average, indicating a lack of compelling investment opportunities by the management.
For the current year, which ends in October, analysts expect COO’s EPS to rise 12.4% to $4.63 on a diluted basis. The company surpassed the consensus estimate in each of the last four quarters.
Among the 18 analysts covering COO stock, the consensus is a “Moderate Buy.” That’s based on nine “Strong Buy” ratings, one “Moderate Buy,” seven “Holds,” and one “Strong Sell.”
The configuration has remained more or less the same over the past months.
On Aug. 14, Citi analyst Joanne Wuensch maintained a “Hold” rating for COO and set a price target of $80.
COO’s mean price target of $80.88 offers an upside of 6.1% compared to the current market price. Its Street-high target of $103 implies a robust 35.1% upside from current levels.
On the date of publication, Aritra Gangopadhyay did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.