The Cooper Companies, Inc.
Orin's own judgment of how firmly the evidence points one way — not the chance the price goes up.
COO remains a hold as of the quarter ended 31 Jul, caught between deteriorating operational momentum and a meaningful insider cluster buy.
Q3 FY2026 revenue growth collapsed to just 0.56% YoY, Q2 FY2026 posted an operating loss of $31M with diluted EPS of -$0.40, and FY2025 gross margin compressed to 60.7% from 66.6% the prior year — yet three insiders purchased roughly $1.66M of stock at $53–55 in September 2026, and the company has beaten EPS estimates in each of the last eight quarters. At 19.77x trailing earnings versus a peer median of 8.97x, the valuation premium leaves no room for further disappointment, and multiple securities class action investigations announced October 14–17, 2026 add a legal overhang that caps near-term upside while the stock trades at $57.94, well below its 50-day ($63.55) and 200-day ($70.04) moving averages.
What could go wrong
- Securities class action overhang. At least five law firms announced securities fraud investigations into COO between October 14–17, 2026, alleging materially misleading business information; outcomes could include settlements, restatements, or management distraction.
- Revenue growth stall. Q3 FY2026 revenue grew only 0.56% YoY versus 5.1% for full FY2025 and 8.4% for FY2024, suggesting demand softness or channel destocking that could persist into FY2027.
- Margin compression. FY2025 gross margin fell to 60.7% from 66.6% in FY2024 and operating margin declined to 16.7% from 18.1%, eroding the earnings power supporting the premium valuation.
- Valuation premium vs peers. COO trades at 19.77x PE versus a peer median of 8.97x — a 120% premium — and at 14.73x EV/EBITDA versus 6.79x median, leaving significant downside if growth does not reaccelerate.
What would change my mind
Where this comes from: Q3 FY26 results · Q2 FY26 results · FY24 and FY25 fundamentals · insider trades. Orin's read on COO; not advice.
How has the share price moved?
Down 17.8% over twelve months, from $72.85 on 27 Oct 2025 to $59.88 at the Tue 27 Oct 2026 close. Its highest close in that time was $84.32 on 6 Jan 2026; the last close is 29.0% below it.
- Green line: the closing price each trading day.
- Grey line: the average closing price over the last 50 trading days.
- Dashed amber line: the same over the last 200 trading days — a slower, smoother line.
- Bars along the bottom: shares traded each day — green when it closed higher than the day before, rose when lower (the most, 18.7M, on 10 Sep 2026).
- Flags: the company's filings, on the day they were made (a 10-Q is the quarterly report and a 10-K the annual report; an 8-K reports a major event).
On file
All COO filingsLargest holders · 13F Q2 2026
Money flow| Filer | Position | Of fund |
|---|---|---|
| BlackRock | $1.1B | 0.0% |
| Vanguard Capital Management | $914.9M | 0.0% |
| State Street | $637.7M | 0.0% |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | $621.7M | 0.0% |
| Browning West | $516.0M | 30.5% |
| T. Rowe Price Associates | $400.1M | 0.0% |
| Geode Capital Management | $382.9M | 0.0% |
| Franklin Resources | $365.5M | 0.1% |
| AQR Capital Management | $285.7M | 0.1% |
| Citadel Advisors | $277.7M | 0.0% |
79 of the 815 filers we track · quarter ended Q2 2026 · positions, not flows
Insiders, last 24 months: 118 Form 4 filings; open-market trades net $4.2M. Of the 50 on hand, 5 were open-market purchases and 0 sales — the rest are grants, option exercises and tax withholding.
Ask Orin about COO
Orin answers questions about COO from its filings, transcripts and numbers — with the source behind every claim. Your own desk starts with 3 free days, card required.
Start 3 free days →How is it priced, against its own past and its sector?
Priced at 20.4× its last 12 months of profit (Tue 27 Oct close); the typical Healthcare company on the NASDAQ is at 20.8×.
| Measure | Now | Its usual | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| P/E | 20.4× | — | 20.8× |
| P/S | 2.69×below usual | 4.29× | — |
| EV/EBITDA | 15.1×below usual | 20.2× | — |
| P/B | 1.4×below usual | 2.0× | — |
- P/E: no usual level — it ran from 7.1× to 53.1× over its last 5 fiscal years, so a middle value says little.
- "Its usual" is the middle of its own last 5 fiscal years.
P/E: the share price divided by one year of profit per share — roughly how many years of today's profit the price pays for. A company that loses money has no P/E.
P/S: the company's total market value divided by one year of revenue. Used when there is no profit to measure.
EV/EBITDA: the price of the whole company (its shares plus its debt, minus its cash) divided by one year of operating profit before interest, tax and write-downs.
P/B: the share price divided by the book value per share — what the company owns minus what it owes, as its accounts record it. When book value is tiny, P/B swings wildly and says little.
What do the analysts who cover it publish?
The analysts' average 12-month price target is $65.11 (from $59 to $75) — 9% above the Tue 27 Oct close price. That is their published opinion, not Orin's.
$65.11
$59 – $75 · +9% against the last close
- 5 buy or overweight
- 9 hold
- 1 underweight or sell
Price target: the share price an analyst publishes for about 12 months ahead. It is the opinion of the firm that wrote it; the average is across the firms that cover the company.
Overweight / underweight: analysts' rating words: overweight means the firm expects the stock to do better than the others it covers, underweight worse. Their words, not Orin's.
How is it priced next to the companies it is compared to?
Priced at 20.4× its last 12 months of profit. Only 2 of the 2 companies it is compared to made a profit (SOLV 98.0×, UHS 7.4×), so there is no typical P/E.
| Company | Market value | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross margin | Net margin | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COOThe Cooper Companies, Inc. | $11B | 20.4× | 15.1× | 63.6% | 13.5% | 7% |
| SOLVSolventum Corporation | $15B | 98.0× | 24.0× | 54.3% | 1.9% | 3% |
| UHSUniversal Health Services, Inc. | $9B | 7.4× | 5.5× | 67.3% | 8.0% | 19% |
- The list of companies is the data vendor's choice, so it can include a company a person would not have picked.
Market value: the share price times the number of shares — what the whole company is priced at.
P/E: the share price divided by one year of profit per share — roughly how many years of today's profit the price pays for. A company that loses money has no P/E.
EV/EBITDA: the price of the whole company (its shares plus its debt, minus its cash) divided by one year of operating profit before interest, tax and write-downs.
Gross margin: the share of each $1 of sales left after the direct cost of making what was sold.
Net margin: the share of each $1 of sales kept as profit after every cost. Below zero, the company lost money.
ROE: return on equity: one year of profit as a share of the shareholders' money in the business (its book value).
Is it priced high or low compared with its own past?
Priced at 20.4× its last 12 months of profit (Tue 27 Oct close). It has no full fiscal year on file since its history starts, so there is nothing of its own to compare with.
- Now20.4×
P/E: the share price divided by one year of profit per share — roughly how many years of today's profit the price pays for. A company that loses money has no P/E.
Fiscal year (FY): the company's own 12-month accounting year, which need not match the calendar year.
How has its sector been priced?
Healthcare companies on the NASDAQ were priced at a typical 20.8× their yearly profit (Tue 27 Oct close).
- Now20.8×
- Each year is the middle of that calendar year's daily sector P/E; "Now" is the Tue 27 Oct close figure, the same one in the table above.
Sector P/E: the middle P/E of the companies in the same sector on the same stock exchange, as the data vendor works it out each day.
What does a cash-flow model say a share is worth?
A standard cash-flow model puts it at $53 a share — 12% below the $59.77 price it was computed against (27 Oct).
| Model | Value a share | Against the price then |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $53 | 12% below $59.77 |
| Levered | $49 | 18% below $59.77 |
Discounted cash flow: a model's estimate of what the company is worth today, from the cash it is forecast to make in future years. Small changes in the forecast move it a lot, and it says little about a company that loses money.
Standard / levered: two versions of the cash-flow model: the standard one counts the cash before the company pays its lenders, the levered one after.