What Happened?
Shares of eyecare company Bausch + Lomb (NYSE: BLCO) fell 6.7% in the morning session after Wells Fargo downgraded the stock's rating from Buy to Hold. The firm cited concerns related to the "voluntary recall" of certain implantable eye lenses reported the previous day.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Bausch + Lomb’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 12 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 1 day ago when the stock dropped 10.6% on the news that the company announced the voluntary recall of intraocular lenses on its enVista platform. The recall was due to the reports of toxic anterior segment syndrome (TASS, a potential complication in any cataract surgery). The recall may raise short-term concerns regarding product safety and regulatory scrutiny. Though the company emphasized that the reported cases of TASS involved only an extremely small fraction of implanted lenses.
Bausch + Lomb is down 21.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $14.15 per share, it is trading 32.4% below its 52-week high of $20.93 from October 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Bausch + Lomb’s shares at the IPO in May 2022 would now be looking at an investment worth $707.38.
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