STAAR Surgical Company (STAA)
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symbol.quality_heading
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
The business carries its own weight: a proprietary material, a 76.2 percent gross margin in 2025, sales in more than 85 countries and a balance sheet that came through the worst year in a decade undamaged — $352.4 million of equity against $37.3 million of financial debt, $163.9 million of cash and marketable securities, an Altman Z-score of about 6.3 and no going-concern language in the quarterly report. What remains open is a clearly operational question, and it weighs heavily: two loss years of minus $20.2 million and minus $80.4 million were followed by exactly one profitable quarter, 51 percent of whose revenue came from two distributors in a single country — the very distributors whose full warehouses caused the 2025 collapse. On top of that, operations consumed $21.7 million of cash despite the quarterly profit, receivables rose by $31.1 million, and the company has been led on an interim basis since February 1, 2026. None of it rises to an existential finding: two distributors are not a single counterparty, the company states its liquidity covers at least twelve months, and the 2025 collapse cost only about 13 percent of equity. This is not documented quality, but it is not a substance risk either — hence yellow. The decision is yours.
symbol.quality_note
On January 6, 2026 STAAR Surgical shareholders voted against the Alcon takeover: 27,339,877 shares against, 14,904,915 in favor — even though the buyer had just raised its price from $28.00 to $30.75 per share. In the first quarter of 2026 revenue then rose 119.6 percent to $93.5 million and the bottom line turned positive again. Proof that the no vote was right? Fifty-one percent of that revenue and 57 percent of all outstanding receivables sat with two distributors in China, cash left the business despite the profit, and the company has had no permanent chief executive since February 1, 2026. We read the filings in the order they were submitted — and separate the defiance from the evidence.
Read the analysis
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 26, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at STAA since then.
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Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 13 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 24.40 $ — 48% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
This stock currently pays no dividend.
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
Uses AISTAAR kaufte laut Geschäfts- und Quartalsberichten unfertige Forschungs- und Entwicklungsleistungen für externe KI-Werkzeuge zur Vermessung und zur Auswahl der Linsengröße ein; eigene KI-Produkte oder KI-Umsätze weist das Unternehmen nicht aus.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
„purchases of in-process research and development in the prior year period related to external AI tools for measurement and lens size selection"
Käufe unfertiger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsleistungen im Vorjahreszeitraum im Zusammenhang mit externen KI-Werkzeugen zur Vermessung und zur Auswahl der Linsengröße
„purchases of in-process research and development related to external AI tools for measurement and lens size selection and outside services related to professional and medical education"
Käufe unfertiger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsleistungen im Zusammenhang mit externen KI-Werkzeugen zur Vermessung und zur Auswahl der Linsengröße sowie Fremdleistungen für die berufliche und medizinische Weiterbildung
„purchases of in-process research and development in the prior year period related to external AI tools for measurement and lens size selection and decreased salary-related and payroll tax expenses"
Käufe unfertiger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsleistungen im Vorjahreszeitraum im Zusammenhang mit externen KI-Werkzeugen zur Vermessung und zur Auswahl der Linsengröße sowie geringere Gehalts- und Lohnsteueraufwendungen
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-05-13 · 10-Q 2025-11-05 · 10-Q 2025-08-06 · 10-Q 2025-05-07 · 10-K 2026-03-03 · 10-K 2025-02-21
Rated on July 26, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 18.4% above the current price.
- Consensus
- Hold
- Analyst Ratings
- 14
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 0.73 | 0.39 – 1.18 | 337 | 537.7% | 7 |
| 12/31/2027 | 0.99 | 0.62 – 1.44 | 361 | 35.7% | 7 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Next Reporting Date
- Expected Earnings per Share
- 0.06 $
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | -0.69 | -541.10 | 49 | -35.80 | -69.90 | 1 | -5 |
| 2025: Q1 | -1.10 | – | 43 | -44.90 | -127.30 | -6 | -7 |
| 2025: Q2 | -0.34 | -329.20 | 44 | -55.20 | -37.90 | -27 | -29 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.18 | -10.60 | 95 | 6.90 | 9.40 | 3 | 2 |
| 2025: Q4 | -0.37 | – | 58 | 18.10 | -31.70 | -4 | -6 |
| 2026: Q1 | 0.10 | – | 94 | 119.60 | 5.60 | -22 | -22 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Annual Figures
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 82 | -13 | -12 | -0.30 | 1 | 38 | 65 |
| 2017 | 91 | -4 | -2 | -0.05 | 3 | 43 | 68 |
| 2018 | 124 | 7 | 5 | 0.11 | 13 | 132 | 167 |
| 2019 | 150 | 12 | 14 | 0.30 | 26 | 160 | 208 |
| 2020 | 163 | 7 | 6 | 0.12 | 21 | 197 | 257 |
| 2021 | 230 | 33 | 28 | 0.56 | 44 | 259 | 346 |
| 2022 | 284 | 44 | 40 | 0.80 | 36 | 336 | 419 |
| 2023 | 322 | 28 | 21 | 0.43 | 15 | 386 | 489 |
| 2024 | 314 | -13 | -20 | -0.41 | 16 | 397 | 510 |
| 2025 | 239 | -46 | -80 | -1.62 | -34 | 344 | 462 |
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
STAAR sells implantable contact lenses made from Collamer, a material it developed and uses exclusively, in more than 85 countries. Gross margin was 76.2 percent in 2025 and 73.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026, up from 65.8 percent a year earlier. That is the margin of a company with a product few can copy.
Two consecutive loss years: minus $20.2 million in 2024 and minus $80.4 million in 2025, on a 23.7 percent revenue decline to $239.4 million. The first quarter of 2026 delivered the turn with $5.2 million of net income — but it is exactly one quarter, and the Piotroski score stands at 1 of 9 (data as of July 25, 2026).
Two distributors in China accounted for 51 percent of group revenue in the first quarter of 2026 and for 57 percent of all trade receivables as of April 3, 2026, up from 33 percent as of January 2, 2026. The fiscal 2025 annual report itself expects weak Chinese consumer spending to keep weighing on ICL demand in 2026.
As of April 3, 2026 the company held $352.4 million of equity against $98.8 million of liabilities and only $37.3 million of financial debt, plus $163.9 million of cash and marketable securities; the Altman Z-score sits at about 6.3. The counterweight: operations consumed $34.2 million of cash in 2025 and a further $21.7 million in the first quarter of 2026, while receivables rose from $54.6 million to $85.7 million.
Broadwood Partners held 16,123,842 shares, or 32.6 percent, as of March 13, 2026, blocked the takeover and has supplied the board chair, Neal C. Bradsher, since January 15, 2026. The company has been run on an interim basis by Warren Foust and Deborah Andrews since February 1, 2026; Foust's letter agreement expires August 1, 2026.
At the July 24, 2026 close of $23.38, market capitalization stood at roughly $1.16 billion — about 4.9 times fiscal 2025 revenue and about 3.3 times book, with no price-to-earnings ratio because of the loss year. The rejected Alcon price was $30.75 per share; the analyst consensus target is $30.00.
STAAR Surgical is the defiance premium in its purest form: shareholders turned down $30.75 per share in cash on January 6, 2026, and the first quarter of 2026 promptly supplied the vindication — revenue up 119.6 percent to $93.5 million, gross margin back to 73.6 percent, $5.2 million of net income after a $54.2 million loss a year earlier. But that vindication rests on a narrow base: 51 percent of quarterly revenue and 57 percent of trade receivables sat with two distributors in China, operations consumed $21.7 million of cash, receivables rose from $54.6 million to $85.7 million, and there has been no permanent chief executive since February 1, 2026. The balance sheet carries all of it: $352.4 million of equity, $37.3 million of financial debt, $163.9 million of cash and marketable securities. Not investment advice.
- STAAR Surgical reached our research list through our in-house stock scanner: rank 18 of 62 in the "Turnaround Candidates" list (U.S. selection) with a turnaround check of 7 of 8 points, as of July 25, 2026. Both the rank and the score are a snapshot of that day — the lists are recalculated daily. The list requires two mandatory pillars (at least 50 percent below the all-time high, and survival evidenced by the Altman Z-score, balance sheet warning signals and positive equity) plus at least 6 of 8 points in the turnaround check, which measures the operational turn and market confirmation.
- Every figure carries its own as-of date: annual figures from the Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (period ended January 2, 2026, filed March 3, 2026), quarterly figures from the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 3, 2026 (filed May 13, 2026), merger and leadership data from the Forms 8-K dated December 9, 2025 through June 22, 2026, ownership from the proxy statement DEF 14A dated May 4, 2026, share count from the 10-Q cover page (May 8, 2026). Valuation metrics as of July 25, 2026, based on the closing price of July 24, 2026 — meant to be evergreen, with no daily price used as an argument.
- Identity and currency: the ticker STAA belongs to STAAR Surgical Company of Lake Forest, California (CIK 0000718937), not to would-be acquirer Alcon. The merger agreed on August 4, 2025 was rejected by shareholders on January 6, 2026 and terminated the same day — the company is independent, and through the most recent filing reviewed, dated June 24, 2026, there is no new attempt. The NASDAQ Listing Rule 5605 notice of January 14, 2026 was cured on January 15, 2026.
About the Company
STAAR Surgical Company entwirft, entwickelt, fertigt und verkauft zusammen mit seinen Tochtergesellschaften phake Implantatlinsen für das Auge sowie zugehörige Applikationssysteme zum Einsetzen der Linsen ins Auge. Das Unternehmen bietet die Produktfamilie der implantierbaren Collamer-Linsen (ICLs) mit EVO ICL, EVO+…
| Employees | 921 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Lake Forest, CA |
| Address | 25510 Commercentre Drive, 92630 Lake Forest, United States |
| Phone | 626 303 7902 |
| Website | staar.com |
| IPO Date | 15. Jul 1983 |
| ISIN | US8523123052 |
| Stock Split | 1:2 on 05/18/1992 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Deborah J. Andrews | Interim Co-CEO & CFO | 1957 |
| Warren Foust | Interim Co-CEO, President & COO | 1977 |
| Magda Michna Ph.D. | Chief Development Officer | – |
| Connie Johnson | Director of Investor Relations | – |
| Kathleen Determann J.D. | VP, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance & Privacy Officer | – |
| Scott D. Barnes M.D. | Chief Medical Officer | 1963 |
| Filip De Keersmaecker | Senior Vice President of Global E2E Supply Chain | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.