Should You Be Adding STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) To Your Watchlist Today?

For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Unfortunately, these high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. Loss-making companies are always racing against time to reach financial sustainability, so investors in these companies may be taking on more risk than they should.

In contrast to all that, many investors prefer to focus on companies like STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA), which has not only revenues, but also profits. While profit isn't the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it's worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it.

See our latest analysis for STAAR Surgical

STAAR Surgical's Earnings Per Share Are Growing

If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price should eventually follow. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. To the delight of shareholders, STAAR Surgical has achieved impressive annual EPS growth of 57%, compound, over the last three years. Growth that fast may well be fleeting, but it should be more than enough to pique the interest of the wary stock pickers.

It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. The good news is that STAAR Surgical is growing revenues, and EBIT margins improved by 4.5 percentage points to 17%, over the last year. Both of which are great metrics to check off for potential growth.

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

In investing, as in life, the future matters more than the past. So why not check out this free interactive visualization of STAAR Surgical's forecast profits?

Are STAAR Surgical Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It should give investors a sense of security owning shares in a company if insiders also own shares, creating a close alignment their interests. So it is good to see that STAAR Surgical insiders have a significant amount of capital invested in the stock. To be specific, they have US$38m worth of shares. That's a lot of money, and no small incentive to work hard. Even though that's only about 0.9% of the company, it's enough money to indicate alignment between the leaders of the business and ordinary shareholders.

While it's always good to see some strong conviction in the company from insiders through heavy investment, it's also important for shareholders to ask if management compensation policies are reasonable. Well, based on the CEO pay, you'd argue that they are indeed. The median total compensation for CEOs of companies similar in size to STAAR Surgical, with market caps between US$2.0b and US$6.4b, is around US$6.6m.

STAAR Surgical offered total compensation worth US$5.5m to its CEO in the year to December 2021. That seems pretty reasonable, especially given it's below the median for similar sized companies. While the level of CEO compensation shouldn't be the biggest factor in how the company is viewed, modest remuneration is a positive, because it suggests that the board keeps shareholder interests in mind. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally.

Is STAAR Surgical Worth Keeping An Eye On?

STAAR Surgical's earnings have taken off in quite an impressive fashion. An added bonus for those interested is that management hold a heap of stock and the CEO pay is quite reasonable, illustrating good cash management. The strong EPS improvement suggests the businesses is humming along. Big growth can make big winners, so the writing on the wall tells us that STAAR Surgical is worth considering carefully. Even so, be aware that STAAR Surgical is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Although STAAR Surgical certainly looks good, it may appeal to more investors if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see insider buying, then this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying, could be exactly what you're looking for.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.