Glaukos Corp. (NASDAQ:$GKOS) is a medical device manufacturer with an eye on glaucoma. The company’s shares are plundering 16.7% today, after management made some adjustments to this year’s total revenue expectations.
The company’s glaucoma-relieving iStent device has been a major hit that has pushed the top line from $45.6 million in 2015 to $114.4 million last year. The rapid growth has propelled a whopping multiple of around 9.1 times trailing sales on the company’s stock. Glaukos has been dropping clues big enough to allude to a slowdown on the horizon. Today, a downward revision to full-year sales guidance from a range of $162 million to $155 million should be a leading example of those clues.
As a response, Glaukos has associated such abrupt revision to the guidance it affirmed during the second-quarter earnings report deliver in early August on recent hurricanes. Further, the company also blamed entrance of a competitor. This competitor is undoubtedly Novartis (NASDAQ:$NVS), which introduced a device for glaucoma patients with compete with Glaukos earlier last year.
There are over 83 million glaucoma patients worldwide, and with an overall market spending of $47 billion last year there’s plenty of room for both Glaukos Corp and Novartis to succeed. But, Glauko’s 16-quarter streak of 40% growth from year to year may be coming to an end.
Featured Image: Depositphotos/© Wavebreakmedia
