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ALALC

Alcon Inc.

$ALC·$36B·Medical - Specialties·Healthcare
$72.01-0.3%1Y-9.4%
Mentions · last 7 days
2026-08-20: 0 posts2026-08-21: 1 posts2026-08-22: 1 posts2026-08-23: 0 posts2026-08-24: 1 posts16+6%
Price updated 2d ago·X counts updated 6d ago
ALALC
$ALCAlcon Inc.
$72.01-0.30%16 posts+6%
AI analysisFundamentalsVoices on X
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AI verdict & sentimentAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Today's AI verdict on what's driving $ALC, plus how loud the X conversation is and which way it's leaning.

AI analysis

TickerTalks’ read on the fundamentals and what’s driving the move.

Proven numbersStalledAI verdict · as of 2026-08-21

The move has stalled — likely just drifts unless something new shows up.

Global eye-care leader printing quiet beats — the demographic story is durable, the tape is waiting on a catalyst.

Alcon is the largest pure-play eye-care company in the world — cataract-surgery equipment and intraocular lenses on the surgical side, contact lenses and ocular-health products on the vision-care side. Aging demographics plus premium-IOL mix shift is the multi-year compounder thesis.

  • Q2 revenue grew 8.7% year-on-year to $2.82B and EPS came in at $0.84 vs $0.77 consensus — the fourth beat of the last five, with the pattern being solid single-digit revenue growth converting to mid-single-digit EPS beats.
  • Trades at ~57x trailing GAAP earnings — the reported number is depressed by acquisition amortization; forward 2026 consensus EPS of $3.40 works out closer to ~21x, which is a normal medical-tech multiple.
  • Sits at the 43rd percentile of its 52-week range and is -10% over 12 months — the tape has genuinely stalled despite the beats; the market seems to be waiting on either a premium-IOL pipeline update or a positive read on China surgical volume recovery.
  • Zero named insider selling in the last 90 days — no distribution overhang.

What restarts the move is a fresh premium-IOL launch (extended-depth-of-focus or accommodating IOLs) driving mix, or a specific China surgical-volume inflection on the Nov 10 Q3 print. What keeps the stall in place is another quarter of good-not-great growth without a fresh product cycle — the multiple can hold at 21x forward, but re-rating higher needs a catalyst the current pipeline hasn't produced yet.

What to watch: Nov 10 Q3 earnings — premium IOL mix and China surgical-volume commentary are the two data points. Any new-product launch tied to the September ophthalmology congress cycle would be a catalyst.

On the calendar: 2026-11-10 — Q3 earnings

Read the AI verdict + X sentiment for $ALC

  • One-line verdict on what's driving the move — fundamentals, momentum, both, or an event
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What it does

Plain-English summary of the business — what they sell and how they make money.

World's largest eye care company making surgical equipment, intraocular lenses, and contact lenses sold in 140+ countries.

Industry overviewAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Where Medical - Specialties sits in its cycle right now — and what that implies for $ALC.

Medical - Specialties · Healthcare

Ekso Bionics' exoskeleton technology for rehabilitation and worker ergonomics is the sole narrative here — reimbursement coverage expansion is the key gating catalyst for hospital adoption, with commercial leadership team appointments indicating management prioritization of growth acceleration.

Top industry ETF

$XLVHealth Care Select Sector SPDR
+4.7%YTD
+25.5%1Y

Fundamentals & catalyst

Profitability, valuation, and the next earnings event — at a glance, with rule-of-thumb signals.

Key ratios

P/E
56.5How much investors are paying per dollar of profit the company actually earned in the last 12 months. Lower means the stock looks cheaper relative to earnings.~15–25 is typical for the S&P 500; high-growth names trade 30+; hyper-growth or speculative can be 100+ or negative.
ROIC
2.8%What percentage return the business earns on every dollar of capital (equity + debt) deployed in operations. The cleanest measure of business quality.Above ~15% is high-quality; consistently above 25% suggests a real moat. Below the company's cost of capital is value-destroying.
Op margin
9.9%Operating profit (after sales, marketing, R&D, and overhead but before interest and taxes) as a percentage of revenue. The clearest view of how well the underlying business is run.Mature business above 20% is healthy; software businesses can run 30%+; commodity / retail businesses operate in single digits.
FCF yield
4.7%Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capex) divided by the company's market cap. The cash-on-cash return you'd get owning the whole business at today's price.Above ~5% is attractive; below ~2% means you're paying up for growth. Capital-light businesses (software) run higher than capital-heavy ones (utilities).
P/S
3.3Same idea as P/E but per dollar of revenue. Useful for companies that aren't profitable yet, where P/E is meaningless.Under ~2 is cheap; software / SaaS often runs 8–15; well above 20 implies the market is pricing in very high future growth.
ROE
2.9%Net income as a percentage of shareholders' equity. Similar to ROIC but counts only the equity side.Above 20% is strong, but can be inflated by leverage — a heavily indebted company can show high ROE with weak underlying ROIC.
Gross margin
56.5%Revenue minus the direct cost of producing what was sold, as a percentage of revenue. The first read on whether the product is structurally profitable.Software / SaaS is typically 70%+; consumer goods 30–50%; commodity / hardware businesses can be under 20%.
D/E
0.2Total debt divided by shareholders' equity. Measures how much the business runs on borrowed money versus owner capital.Under 1 is conservative; 1–2 is typical for mature businesses; over 2 is leveraged and more sensitive to interest rates.

Past earnings

QuarterReportedActualEstimateSurprise
Q2 2026Aug 10, 2026$0.84$0.77+9.1%
Q1 2026May 5, 2026$0.85$0.80+6.2%
Q4 2025Feb 24, 2026$0.78$0.79-1.3%
Q3 2025Nov 11, 2025$0.79$0.77+2.6%
Next earningsTue, Nov 10·consensus EPS $0.90

Quarterly trend

QuarterRevenueYoYGrossOpEPSFCF
Q2 FY26$2.8B+8.7%59.3%0.4%$0.00$414.0M
Q1 FY26$2.7B+7.3%56.4%15.5%$0.38$273.6M
Q4 FY25$2.7B+8.6%54.2%11.5%$0.44$457.0M
Q3 FY25$2.6B+6.5%55.8%12.7%$0.48$538.7M

Forward consensus

5-year forecast · up to 17 analysts
FYRevenueRangeEPSRangeAnalysts
FY26$10.9B$10.9B – $10.9B$3.40$3.29 – $3.7517
FY27$11.6B$11.5B – $11.7B$3.88$3.78 – $3.9916
FY28$12.3B$11.9B – $12.7B$4.40$2.91 – $5.4416
FY29$13.0B$12.8B – $13.2B$5.09$4.99 – $5.2314
FY30$13.9B$13.7B – $14.2B$5.76$5.65 – $5.9214

Setup & momentum

Volume, range, and moving-average position — the technical setup driving short-term moves.

Right now

Vol vs 30dToday's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.0.6×Today's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.
52w rangeWhere the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.39%Where the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.
vs 50d MALatest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.+3.1%Latest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.
vs 200d MALatest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.-3.5%Latest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.

Float & profile

FloatHigh float · 486.1M shFree-float shares — the slice of issued stock actually available to trade. Lower buckets squeeze harder on a catalyst.Traded today0.2% of floatToday's volume as a percent of the free float. Above 5% on a single day is unusually high turnover for the available share count.β0.695-year weekly beta vs the S&P 500. Above 1.5 means the stock typically moves more than the index; below 0.8 moves less.

SEC filings

Material 8-K, 13D, S-3, and 424B5 events from the last 180 days — the filings that actually move the price.

No material 8-K / SC 13D / S-3 / 424B5 filings in the last 180 days.

+ 4 other (3 6-Ks · 1 SD) in window

Recent news

Latest headlines from major outlets, sourced and timestamped — context for whatever just moved.

Alcon Prices EUR 500 Million Senior Notes Offeringbusinesswire.com·4d agoAlcon: A Strong Company Trading Close To Its Intrinsic Value, Buyseekingalpha.com·13d agoBill Ackman Just Disclosed 6 New Positions, and 4 of Them Are Financial Stocks. Here's What He's Betting On.fool.com·16d agoWhy Netflix Stock Popped Todaygurufocus.com·17d agoBill Ackman Buys Back Into Netflix Four Years After Selling at a Lossgurufocus.com·17d ago

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Peers in the same group — one click to compare setups, fundamentals, and chatter.

$STE
Voices on X · last 7 days

No standout posts about $ALC on X in the last 7 days.

TickerTalks is a research tool, not financial advice. We surface social-attention data; we do not make stock recommendations. Past attention is not predictive of future price movements.

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