Cooper Shares Jumped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of eye-care specialist Cooper Cos. (NYS: COO) soared 20% Friday after its quarterly results and guidance topped Wall Street expectations.

So what: Cooper's fourth-quarter beat was so wide -- adjusted EPS of $1.46 versus the consensus of $1.21 -- that Mr. Market is gleefully raising his growth expectations on the stock. However, given the lingering FDA issues related to Cooper's recent recall of 600,000 Avaira Toric contact lenses, Fools should probably take a much more cautious view of the results.

Now what: Looking ahead, Cooper sees fiscal 2012 EPS of $4.80-$5.00, which also topped analyst estimates. "Momentum should continue," CEO Bob Weiss said in the conference call, "sponsored by the geographic expansion of our silicon hydrogel family, particularly with our recent successes in Biofinity in Japan and Biofinity Multifocal as well as our Proclear one-day." Of course, when you couple the previously mentioned manufacturing issues with the fact that it will always lack the sheer scale and low-cost power of contact lens king Johnson & Johnson (NYS: JNJ) , Cooper isn't exactly the clearest long-term pick.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. The Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of and creating a diagonal call position in Johnson & Johnson. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

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