Head-To-Head Comparison: LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH) versus Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) (COO)

Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE: COO) and LightPath Technologies (NASDAQ:LPTH) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) and LightPath Technologies’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cooper Companies, Inc. (The)	$2.05 billion	5.79	$635.85 million	$6.67	36.42
LightPath Technologies	$24.09 million	2.56	$5.66 million	$0.09	28.44

Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) has higher revenue and earnings than LightPath Technologies. LightPath Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cooper Companies, Inc. (The), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.1% of Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 29.3% of LightPath Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of LightPath Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) and LightPath Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cooper Companies, Inc. (The)	0	3	6	0	2.67
LightPath Technologies	0	0	2	0	3.00

Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) presently has a consensus price target of $238.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.03%. LightPath Technologies has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.19%. Given LightPath Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LightPath Technologies is more favorable than Cooper Companies, Inc. (The).

Risk & Volatility

Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LightPath Technologies has a beta of -0.6, meaning that its stock price is 160% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) pays an annual dividend of $0.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.0%. LightPath Technologies does not pay a dividend. Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) pays out 0.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) and LightPath Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cooper Companies, Inc. (The)	16.02%	15.88%	9.62%
LightPath Technologies	6.94%	12.48%	7.58%

Summary

Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) beats LightPath Technologies on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cooper Companies, Inc. (The)

The Cooper Companies, Inc. is a global medical device company. The Company operates through two business units: CooperVision, Inc. and CooperSurgical, Inc. CooperVision offers soft contact lenses for the vision correction market. CooperVision develops, manufactures and markets a range of single-use, two-week and monthly contact lenses. CooperVision services three primary regions: the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific. CooperVision offers spherical, aspherical, toric, multifocal and toric multifocal lens products in various modalities. CooperVision’s products are primarily manufactured at its facilities located in the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Hungary, Costa Rica and New York. CooperSurgical offers an array of products and services focused on advancing the health of families through a portfolio of products and services focusing on women’s health, fertility and diagnostics.

About LightPath Technologies

LightPath Technologies, Inc. is a manufacturer and integrator of families of precision molded aspheric optics, fiber-optic collimator, GRADIUM glass lenses and other optical materials used to produce products that manipulate light. The Company designs, develops, manufactures and distributes optical components and assemblies utilizing the optical processes and manufacturing technologies. The Company also performs research and development for optical solutions for the traditional optics markets and communications markets. The Company’s products are incorporated into a range of applications by its customers in various industries, including defense products, medical devices, laser aided industrial tools, automotive safety applications, barcode scanners, optical data storage, hybrid fiber coax datacom, telecommunications, machine vision and sensors.