Cooper Companies, Inc. (The) Value Stock - Dividend - Research Selection

The Cooper Companies, Inc. (Cooper, we or the Company), a Delaware corporation organized in 1980, is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE Euronext (NYSE: COO). Cooper is dedicated to being A Quality of Life CompanyTM.. Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical.

CooperVision is a global manufacturer providing products for contact lens wearers. CooperVision develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of single-use, two-week and monthly contact lenses, featuring advanced materials and optics. CooperVision designs its products to solve vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, myopia, ocular dryness and eye fatigues; with a broad collection of spherical, toric and multifocal contact lenses. CooperVision's contact lenses are offered in a variety of materials including silicone hydrogel Aquaform® technology and phosphorylcholine technology (PC) Technology™. CooperVision primarily manufactures its products at its facilities located in the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Hungary, Costa Rica and the United States. CooperVision distributes products out of its facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and various smaller international distribution facilities.

CooperSurgical's business competes in the general health care market with a focus on advancing the health of families through a diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on women's health, including medical devices, fertility, genomics, diagnostics, and contraception. CooperSurgical has established its market presence and distribution system by developing products and acquiring companies, products and services that complement its business model. We categorize CooperSurgical product sales based on the point of health care delivery, which includes products used in medical office and surgical procedures, primarily by obstetricians and gynecologists (ob/gyns); and fertility products/equipment and genetic testing services used primarily in fertility clinics and laboratories. CooperSurgical's major manufacturing and distribution facilities are located in Connecticut, Texas, Denmark and various smaller international locations, with diagnostic facilities located in multiple locations in the United States and internationally in Canada and the United Kingdom. In November 2017, CooperSurgical purchased a manufacturing facility in Costa Rica to consolidate a portion of global manufacturing.

CooperVision and CooperSurgical each operate in highly competitive environments. Competition in the medical device industry is dynamic and involves the search for technological and therapeutic innovations. Both of Cooper's businesses compete predominantly on the basis of product quality and differentiation, technological benefit, service and reliability.

COOPERVISION

CooperVision competes in the worldwide soft contact lens market and services three primary regions: the Americas, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific. The contact lens market has two major product categories:

•Spherical lenses including lenses that correct near- and farsightedness uncomplicated by more complex visual defects.

• Toric and multifocal lenses including lenses that, in addition to correcting near- and farsightedness, address more complex visual defects such as astigmatism and presbyopia by adding optical properties of cylinder and axis, which correct for irregularities in the shape of the cornea.

In order to achieve comfortable and healthy contact lens wear, products are sold with recommended replacement schedules, often defined as modalities, with the primary modalities being single-use, two-week and monthly. Dailies are the fastest growing modality in the contact lens segment and comprised approximately 49% and 46% of the contact lens market in 2017 and 2016, respectively, representing a growth of approximately 12% based on recent market estimates trailing twelve months through September.

CooperVision offers spherical, aspherical, toric, multifocal and toric multifocal lens products in most modalities. We believe that in order to compete successfully in the numerous categories of the contact lens market, companies must offer differentiated products that are priced competitively and manufactured efficiently. CooperVision believes that it is the only contact lens manufacturer to use three different manufacturing processes to produce its lenses: lathing, cast molding and FIPS™, a cost-effective combination of lathing and molding. We believe this manufacturing flexibility allows CooperVision to compete in its markets by:

• Producing high, medium and low volumes of lenses made with a variety of materials for a broader range of market niches: single-use, two-week, monthly and quarterly disposable sphere, toric and multifocal lenses and custom toric lenses for patients with a high degree of astigmatism.

• Offering a wide range of lens parameters, leading to a higher rate of successful fitting for practitioners and better visual acuity for patients.

Sales of contact lenses utilizing silicone hydrogel materials continue to grow and this product material represents about 80% of the monthly and two week modalities and 26% of the single use modality of the contact lens market based on recent market estimates. Silicone hydrogel materials supply a higher level of oxygen to the cornea, as measured by the transmissibility of oxygen through a given thickness of material, or “dk/t,” than traditional hydrogel lenses. We believe our ability to compete successfully with a full range of silicone hydrogel products is an important factor to achieving success in our business. Silicone hydrogel lenses now represent a significant portion of CooperVision's contact lens sales and our Biofinity® brand is CooperVision's leading product line. Under the Biofinity® brand, CooperVision markets monthly silicone hydrogel spherical, toric and multifocal lens products.

CooperVision markets single-use silicone hydrogel spherical, toric and multifocal lenses under our clariti® 1day brand and single-use silicone hydrogel spherical and toric lenses under our MyDay® brand. Our clariti 1day brand provides the only single-use silicone hydrogel lenses in the marketplace with a complete line of spherical, toric and multifocal contact lenses. We also compete in the traditional hydrogel single-use product segment with several lenses including our Proclear® 1 Day lenses. We believe the global market for single-use contact lenses will continue to grow and that our competitive silicone hydrogel and traditional hydrogel product offerings represent an opportunity for our business.

CooperVision's Proclear line of spherical, toric and multifocal lenses are manufactured with omafilcon, a material that incorporates Phosphorylcholine (PC) Technology™ that helps enhance tissue-device compatibility. Proclear lenses are the only lenses with United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the claim "… may provide improved comfort for contact lens wearers who experience mild discomfort or symptoms relating to dryness during lens wear", which is important as mild discomfort relating to dryness during lens wear is a condition that often causes patients to discontinue contact lens use.

In addition to its PC Technology™ and silicone hydrogel product offerings, CooperVision competes in the contact lens market with other traditional hydrogel products.

CooperVision is focused on greater worldwide market penetration of recently introduced products, and we continue to expand our presence in existing and emerging markets, including through acquisitions. Subsequent to the fiscal year ended October 31, 2017, on December 1, 2017, CooperVision acquired Paragon Vision services, a leading provider of orthokeratology (ortho-k), specialty contact lenses and oxygen permeable rigid contact lens material for approximately $80.0 million. In fiscal 2017, we acquired Procornea, a Netherlands based manufacturer of specialty contact lenses, which expands CooperVision’s access to myopia (nearsightedness) management markets with new products, and Grand Vista LLC, a distributor in Russia of soft contact lenses. In fiscal 2016, we acquired Soflex, an Israeli manufacturer and distributor of soft contact lenses and aftercare solutions.

Contact Lens Product Sales

Spheres: Net sales of CooperVision's spherical lenses represented 54 percent of CooperVision's net sales in fiscal 2017.

Toric: Net sales of CooperVision's toric lenses represented 31 percent of CooperVision's net sales in fiscal 2017.

Multifocal: Net sales of multifocal lenses represented 11 percent of net sales in the fiscal year.

Silicone Hydrogel: CooperVision's silicone hydrogel spherical, toric and multifocal lens products, including Biofinity, clariti, Avaira and MyDay products, represented 65 percent of CooperVision's net sales in fiscal 2017.

CooperVision Competition

The contact lens market is highly competitive. CooperVision's largest competitors in the worldwide market and its primary competitors in the spherical, toric and multifocal lens categories of that market are Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. and Alcon (formerly CIBA Vision Corporation) owned by Novartis AG.

CooperVision's primary competitors in the contact lens business have greater financial resources, larger research and development budgets, larger sales forces, greater market penetration and/or larger manufacturing volumes. CooperVision seeks to offer a high level of customer service through its direct sales organizations around the world and through telephone sales and technical service representatives who consult with eye care professionals about the use of our lens products.

CooperVision also competes with manufacturers of eyeglasses and with refractive surgical procedures that correct visual defects. CooperVision believes that there are opportunities for contact lenses to gain market share, particularly in markets where the penetration of contact lenses in the vision correction market is low. CooperVision also believes that laser vision correction is not a significant threat to its sales of contact lenses based on the growth of the contact lens market over the past decade.

Over the past decade, competition has continued to shift its focus. As an example, the contact lens industry has experienced a global shift toward silicone hydrogel lenses that now represent approximately 80% of the monthly and two week modalities and 26% of the single use modality of the contact lens market. CooperVision competes in the silicone hydrogel segment of the market with its following products: Biofinity monthly spherical, toric and multifocal lenses; Avaira® and Avaira VitalityTM two-week spherical and toric lenses; clariti 1day brand of single-use sphere, toric and multifocal lenses; and MyDay single-use spherical and toric lenses. The clariti 1day and MyDay brands of single-use contact lenses provide CooperVision with the broadest product portfolio in the single-use silicone hydrogel market.

In addition to a broad offering of silicone hydrogel lenses, CooperVision competes based on the fact that its three manufacturing processes allow CooperVision to produce a broad range of spheres, toric and multifocal lens parameters, which we believe provides wide choices for patient and practitioner and a high level of visual acuity. We also compete based on our customer and professional services.

COOPERSURGICAL

CooperSurgical offers a broad array of products and services focused on advancing the health of families through a diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on women's health, including medical devices, fertility, genomics, diagnostics and contraception. The Company offers quality products, innovative technologies and superior services to clinicians and patients worldwide. CooperSurgical collaborates with clinicians to identify products and new technologies from disposable products to diagnostic tests to sophisticated instruments and equipment, to bring new products to market. The result is a broad portfolio of products and services that are intended to aid in the delivery of improved clinical outcomes that health care professionals use routinely in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide spectrum of family and women's health and reproductive issues.

Since its inception in 1990, CooperSurgical has established its market presence and distribution system by developing products and acquiring products and companies that complement its business model.

CooperSurgical competes in the global in-vitro fertilization (IVF) market with a product portfolio of IVF media and assisted reproductive technology solutions designed to enhance the work of fertility professionals to the benefit of families.

We have continued to invest in CooperSurgical's business through the acquisition of companies and product lines for new or complementary products and services for the IVF process and within the ob/gyn space.

In our first quarter of fiscal 2017, we acquired Wallace, the IVF segment of Smiths Medical International Ltd for $167.4 million. In fiscal 2016, we acquired Recombine Inc., Reprogenetics UK and Genesis Genetics Inc., which compete in service offerings of carrier screening, preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) and/or preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) used during the IVF process, We also acquired Kivex Biotec A/S, The Pipette Company and Research Instruments, who are manufacturers and distributors of IVF medical devices, systems and/or equipment. We intend to continue investing in CooperSurgical's business with the goal of expanding our integrated solutions model within the areas of family health, fertility and diagnostics.

Subsequent to our fiscal year ended October 31, 2017, on November 1, 2017, we acquired the Paragard product line ("PARAGARD®") from Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited ("Teva") for $1.1 billion. PARAGARD® is the only non-hormonal, copper Intrauterine Device ("IUD") approved for birth control in the United States. This acquisition broadens and strengthens CooperSurgical's current women's health product portfolio in office and surgical procedures. PARAGARD® is the only hormone-free, long lasting, reversible contraceptive option approved by FDA available in the United States, and IUDs represent a large and growing segment of the contraceptive market.