COO

Cooper Companies is a durable, high-margin medical-device franchise built around contact lenses (CooperVision) and fertility/women's-health products (CooperSurgical). FY2025 (fiscal year ended October 31, 2025) revenue grew 5.1% to $4.09B with a strong 65.5% gross margin, confirming the recurring, consumable-driven economics of the business. Cash generation is healthy — operating cash flow rose 12.2% to $796M against $362M of capex — and the balance sheet is conservative, with liabilities/equity of just 0.50x and long-term debt trimmed 3.6% to $2.46B. The audit opinion (KPMG) is clean and unqualified on both financials and internal controls.

The tension is between quality and price. Despite mid-single-digit revenue growth, profitability slipped: net income fell 4.4% to $375M, operating income declined 3.2% to $683M, and diluted EPS eased 4.6% to $1.87, leaving net margin at a modest 9.2% and ROE at just 4.6% on the large $8.24B equity base. So the company grew the top line but did not convert it into earnings growth this year, a reminder that amortization, R&D (+11.0% to $172M) and interest costs weigh on the bottom line. Management deployed $290M into buybacks (shares down 1.8%) and pays no dividend, signaling a reinvest-and-repurchase capital strategy.