STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $18.29, but opened at $19.25. STAAR Surgical shares last traded at $18.99, with a volume of 158,916 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STAA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BTIG Research downgraded STAAR Surgical from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Mizuho cut STAAR Surgical from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on STAAR Surgical in a report on Monday, April 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of STAAR Surgical in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded STAAR Surgical from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.63.

STAAR Surgical Trading Up 5.1%

The business has a 50 day moving average of $17.60 and a 200-day moving average of $21.52. The stock has a market cap of $951.89 million, a PE ratio of -46.88 and a beta of 0.65.

STAAR Surgical declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Friday, May 16th that allows the company to buyback $30.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the medical instruments supplier to buy up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other STAAR Surgical news, major shareholder Broadwood Partners, L.P. purchased 259,316 shares of STAAR Surgical stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were bought at an average price of $17.05 per share, with a total value of $4,421,337.80. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 11,548,753 shares in the company, valued at $196,906,238.65. This trade represents a 2.30% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have acquired a total of 1,446,433 shares of company stock valued at $23,957,807 in the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in STAA. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of STAAR Surgical by 349.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 91,707 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $3,406,000 after buying an additional 71,301 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of STAAR Surgical by 80.1% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 31,844 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,183,000 after buying an additional 14,162 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of STAAR Surgical by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 36,374 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $884,000 after buying an additional 6,354 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of STAAR Surgical by 5,700.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 96,585 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,346,000 after buying an additional 94,920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Defender Capital LLC. increased its holdings in shares of STAAR Surgical by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Defender Capital LLC. now owns 701,567 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $17,041,000 after buying an additional 23,950 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.70% of the company’s stock.

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.