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Cooper Companies (COO) Increase Share Repurchase Program

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The Cooper Companies, Inc. (COO - Free Report) recently announced that it has approved a $500.0 million increase in its ongoing share repurchase program. In Dec 2011, the company had first authorized a share repurchase program and subsequently amended the total repurchase authorization to $500.0 million.

Stock Performance

A glimpse of the company’s price trend reveals that the stock has had a strong run on the bourse year to date. Cooper Companies added 11.65% versus the Zacks classified Medical/Dental-Supplies sub-industry’s gain of 8.50%.

Despite the bullish price trend, estimate revision for the stock has been unfavourable. In fact, the ongoing quarter saw seven analysts move south over the last seven days and two moving in the opposite direction. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the ongoing quarter fell by two cents to $2.25, over the same time frame. Presently, the stock has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).


Coming back to the news, with the $500 million increase the share repurchase program now totals to $1 billion. Of this approximately $618.5 million is remaining with no expiration date. As of Jan 31, 2017, the company had $91.1 million in cash and $902.8 million available under its syndicated revolving credit agreement.

Going forward, the company is expected to maintain growth through leading positions in markets of speciality lenses with highly exclusive products like Bioinfinity, Clarity and silicone hydrogel lenses. The company's growing presence in the women's healthcare market through accretive acquisitions is also a positive in our view. However, of the major concerns, an unfavorable foreign exchange rate, intensifying competition and volatility at distributor base might dent growth.

Taking the stable performance of the stock into consideration, we expect The Cooper Companies to scale higher in the coming quarters. In this regard, a positive long-term growth of 11.8% holds promise.

Based in Pleasanton, CA, The Cooper Companies is a specialty medical device company operating on a global basis. It operates through two business segments, namely CooperVision and CooperSurgical.

Stocks to Consider

Better-ranked stocks in the broader medical sector include Inogen Inc. (INGN - Free Report) , Avinger, Inc. (AVGR - Free Report) and Fluidigm Corporation . Notably, Inogen sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Fluidigm and Avinger carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Inogen has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 17.05%. Notably, the stock has an impressive one-year return of 77.4%.

Avinger projects sales growth of 30.6% for the current year. Additionally, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 27% last quarter.

Fluidigm Corporation has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 25%. The stock added 6.08%, in the last one year.
   

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