Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: What is your analysis of Glaukos Corp.? It was a new issue in 2015, and I know you don’t like those. Thank you; I appreciate any advice you can provide.

Article Excerpt

A: Glaukos Corporation, $46.65, symbol GKOS on NYSE (Shares outstanding: 34.3 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; www.glaukos.com) first offered shares to the public in June 2015 at $18 per share; the share price rose 73.4% in its first day of trading. Glaukos develops and markets medical devices and therapies to treat glaucoma. That disease is the result of excessive pressure on the eye’s optic nerve; it’s also the leading cause of blindness. The company’s main product is a small medical device called iStent, which helps to lower pressure on the optic nerve and so reduces further vision loss due to glaucoma. The implant is the smallest medical device to ever be approved by the Food and Drug Administration at 1.0 millimetres in length and 0.33 millimetres wide. Glaukos launched the implant in the U.S. in 2012. Surgeons have now placed the iStent in thousands of patients, usually during cataract surgery. That operation involves replacing the cloudy lens of an eye with an artificial…