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Here's Why You Should Retain Glaukos in Your Portfolio Now

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Glaukos Corporation (GKOS - Free Report) is gaining on robust product portfolio and iStent technology. However, tough competition has been offsetting the positives to an extent.

The company, with a market capitalization of $1.76 billion, is a leading ophthalmic medical technology and pharmaceutical company. The company’s earnings are anticipated to improve 8% over the next five years. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 17.6%, on average.

In the past three months, the stock has gained 39% compared with 29.6% rise of its industry.

Let’s delve deeper into the factors working in favor of the company.

IStent Strength: Glaukos’ flagship iStent is the first FDA-approved surgical device available for insertion in conjunction with cataract surgery. Currently, the iStent procedure is reimbursed in the United States by Medicare and all major national private payors. It is also commercially available in certain countries like Brazil, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries.

Management at Glaukos continues to beoptimistic about the prospects in the iStent platform worldwide, including the emerging economies.

Through the first quarter of 2020, the company made substantial progress with the iStent portfolio, with the iStent  inject attaining regulatory approval in Japan.

Solid Pipeline: Glaukos is currently developing several pipeline products like the iStent Infinite, the iStent Supra, the iStent SA and iDose Travoprost.

Further, the company is working with Japan’s regulatory body to secure appropriate reimbursement coverage to support a commercial launch by the end of 2020.

Moreover, Glaukos is in the early stages of the potential U.S. commercial launch of Santen's Pharmaceuticals' pressure flow MicroShunt, which is an innovative and compelling treatment alternative created for late stage glaucoma management. The company anticipates the FDA approval in late 2020 to early 2021. In fact, this marks the capstone of Glaukos’ glaucoma treatment algorithm.

With the targeted launches of MicroShunt in late 2020 to early 2021, iStent infinite in late 2021 and iDose TR in 2022, and promising longer-term programs of iStent SA, iDose TREX, iDose Rock and the IOP Sensor program, Glaukos believes that it is well poised to drive sustainable long-term growth in its glaucoma franchise.

However, there is a concerning factor.

Cutthroat Competition: Glaukos’ competitors include medical companies, academic and research institutions or others that develop new drugs, therapies medical devices or surgical procedures to treat glaucoma.

Therefore, intense competition continues to weigh on the company’s overall performance.

Estimates Trend

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 revenues is pegged at $197.6 million, suggesting a 16.6% fall from the year-ago reported number. The same for loss is pegged at $2.15.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are DexCom (DXCM - Free Report) , Surmodics (SRDX - Free Report)  and LabCorp (LH - Free Report) .

DexCom’s earnings growth rate for the next year is estimated at 37.7%. The company presently carries a Zacks Rank #2  (Buy) You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Surmodics’ long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 10%. The company presently carries a Zacks Rank #1.

LabCorp’ long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 6.1%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

Zacks’ Single Best Pick to Double

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each picked their favorite to gain +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Zacks Director of Research, Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

This young company’s gigantic growth was hidden by low-volume trading, then cut short by the coronavirus. But its digital products stand out in a region where the internet economy has tripled since 2015 and looks to triple again by 2025.

 Its stock price is already starting to resume its upward arc. The sky’s the limit! And the earlier you get in, the greater your potential gain.

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