Wondering whether STAAR Surgical at around $25 a share is a bargain or a value trap? Let us unpack what the market is really pricing in and what the fundamentals say.
The stock is roughly flat over the last year at about 0.3% while still up 5.3% year to date, but those modest gains sit on top of a painful multi year slide of around 58% over three years and nearly 68% over five.
That kind of long term drawdown usually reflects shifting expectations around growth and competitive pressure in its niche of implantable lenses, as investors reassess how fast premium vision correction can scale. At the same time, renewed interest in specialized medical devices and structural demand for refractive surgery keeps STAAR on many watchlists, even without splashy headline catalysts.
On our high level checks, STAAR currently scores just 2 out of 6 for undervaluation, which suggests pockets of value but not a screaming deal on traditional metrics alone. Next, we will walk through the main valuation approaches that produce that score and outline a more insightful way to think about what the stock might really be worth by the end of this article.
STAAR Surgical scores just 2/6 on our valuation checks. See what other red flags we found in the full valuation breakdown.
A Discounted Cash Flow model estimates what a business is worth today by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them back to the present using a required rate of return.
For STAAR Surgical, the latest twelve month Free Cash Flow is negative at about $42.7 Million, which reflects current investment and profitability challenges. Analysts project an improvement, with Free Cash Flow expected to reach $66 Million by 2029, and Simply Wall St then extrapolates further growth out to 2035 based on those analyst inputs.
When all projected cash flows are discounted back to today using a 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity model, the intrinsic value comes out at around $37.33 per share. With the stock trading near $25, the DCF suggests the shares are roughly 32.0% undervalued and that the market may be skeptical that STAAR will fully deliver on these cash flow improvements.
Result: UNDERVALUED
Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests STAAR Surgical is undervalued by 32.0%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio, or discover 911 more undervalued stocks based on cash flows.
STAA Discounted Cash Flow as at Dec 2025
Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for STAAR Surgical.
For companies where earnings are volatile or negative, the Price to Sales ratio is often a cleaner way to think about valuation. It focuses on what investors are paying for each dollar of revenue rather than profit that can swing with short term spending decisions.
A higher or lower “normal” multiple tends to reflect how quickly a business can grow those sales and how risky that growth looks. Faster, more predictable growth usually aligns with a higher Price to Sales ratio, while slower or shakier growth is often closer to or below the market and industry averages.
STAAR Surgical currently trades on a Price to Sales ratio of about 5.47x, which is meaningfully above both the Medical Equipment industry average of roughly 3.37x and the peer average of around 3.37x. Simply Wall St’s Fair Ratio for STAAR is 3.79x, a proprietary estimate of the multiple the stock could trade on given its growth outlook, profitability, industry, size, and risk profile.
Because the Fair Ratio blends all of these fundamentals, it is a more nuanced benchmark than a simple peer or industry comparison. With STAAR’s current 5.47x sitting well above the 3.79x Fair Ratio, the stock screens as overvalued on this measure.
Result: OVERVALUED
NasdaqGM:STAA PS Ratio as at Dec 2025
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Earlier we mentioned that there is an even better way to understand valuation, so let us introduce you to Narratives, a simple way to connect your view of a company with the numbers behind it. A Narrative is the story you believe about a business, expressed through assumptions about its future revenue, earnings and margins, which then flow through to a forecast and an estimated fair value. On Simply Wall St, Narratives are an easy, accessible tool on the Community page, where millions of investors can turn their perspective on a company into a structured financial view. By comparing your Narrative Fair Value to the current share price, you can quickly decide how STAAR Surgical aligns with your own investment view as a potential buy, hold or sell, and because Narratives update dynamically as new news, earnings or guidance comes in, your view remains current rather than static. For example, on STAAR Surgical today, one investor might see upside to a fair value around $28 on the back of a China recovery and new products, while another could take a more cautious stance closer to $16 if they doubt the rebound and worry more about competition and execution risk.
Do you think there’s more to the story for STAAR Surgical? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying!
NasdaqGM:STAA Community Fair Values as at Dec 2025
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Companies discussed in this article include STAA.
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