One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$87.10 our estimate vs market $76.69
Wall Street consensus: $81.98 (-5.9% lower than our fair-value estimate)
12% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Alcon Inc.
ALC · NYQ · Healthcare · Medical Instruments & Supplies
Current price
$76.69
52-week range
$61.84 - $87.64
Market cap
$37.07B
Balance sheet
Watch
6.67x Adequate
Net debt $3.84B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 10.5% last year.
- Reward Returns 2.9% on equity, ahead of 40% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 4.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.2% (peer median: 0.6%).
What this company does
Alcon Inc.
Alcon sells products for eye care, like equipment for eye surgery and contact lenses. The money they make mainly comes from selling these surgical products and contact lenses, which helps people see better and take care of their eyes.
How the company got here
Alcon was founded in 1945 in Fort Worth, Texas, by William Conner and Leo McCarey, initially as a small pharmaceutical laboratory. It grew over the decades by focusing on eye care products and innovations. A significant turning point was its acquisition by Novartis in 2008, which allowed for greater investment and expansion. In 2019, Alcon was spun off from Novartis to become an independent, publicly traded company, allowing it to focus solely on its core eye care business.
What it actually does
Alcon is a global leader dedicated to helping people see brilliantly. They develop, manufacture, and market a wide range of products designed to improve vision and eye health. Think of everything from the contact lenses you might wear daily to the sophisticated equipment used by eye surgeons to perform complex procedures. Their goal is to provide solutions for a variety of eye conditions and needs, from common vision correction to surgical interventions for serious eye diseases.
Surgical
The Surgical segment offers a comprehensive suite of products for eye surgery, particularly for procedures like cataract removal and refractive surgery. This includes advanced equipment and diagnostic tools that help surgeons plan and execute operations with precision, such as lasers for cataract surgery and microscopes for detailed viewing. They also provide implantable lenses, like those that replace a natural lens clouded by a cataract, and various disposable supplies used during these procedures. This segment is a significant part of Alcon's business, catering to eye care professionals performing intricate surgical interventions.
Vision Care
The Vision Care segment focuses on products for everyday eye health and vision correction, primarily contact lenses and ocular health solutions. This includes daily disposable contact lenses, which are convenient for many wearers, as well as reusable lenses and even colored contact lenses for cosmetic enhancement. Beyond contact lenses, this division also offers products to manage common eye conditions like dry eye and allergies, as well as solutions for cleaning and storing contact lenses. This segment reaches a broad consumer base looking for convenient and effective ways to care for their eyes.
What management is betting on now
Alcon's management is focused on driving growth through innovation and expanding its product offerings in both surgical and vision care. They are investing in research and development to bring new technologies and therapies to market, particularly in areas like advanced intraocular lenses and treatments for chronic eye diseases. The company is also prioritizing expanding its global reach and strengthening its commercial operations to better serve eye care professionals and patients worldwide. This strategy aims to solidify Alcon's position as a comprehensive eye care solutions provider.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2009 Q4
$2.07B
FY2010 Q4
$2.07B
Revenue
$1.81B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.71
Operating cash flow
$2.38B
Free cash flow
$2.07B
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Sources
Revenue
$1.76B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.47
Operating cash flow
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Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.89B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
2.21
Operating cash flow
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Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.72B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.89
Operating cash flow
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Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.72B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.51
Operating cash flow
$2.42B
Free cash flow
$2.07B
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Sources
Revenue
$1.61B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.71
Operating cash flow
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Free cash flow
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Revenue
$1.68B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.94
Operating cash flow
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Revenue
$1.49B
Net income
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Diluted EPS
1.51
Operating cash flow
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Free cash flow
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $87.10 vs current price $76.69
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $81.98 (-5.9% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $87.10 a share — about 13.6% away from today's price of $76.69, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $3.8B. Interest coverage 6.7x.
Net debt
$3.84B
Interest coverage
6.67x
Alcon Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 6.7 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 2 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
ALC
BASELINE
Alcon Inc.
Total debt $5.30B Interest coverage 6.67x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $44.65B Interest coverage 26.36x +295% vs ALC Carries about 4.0x more debt cushion than ALC.
Total debt $5.10B Interest coverage 0.45x -93% vs ALC Carries about 14.9x less debt cushion than ALC.
Total debt $2.80B Interest coverage 6.83x +2% vs ALC Has roughly the same debt cushion as ALC.
Total debt $35.94M Interest coverage -10.00x -100% vs ALC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with ALC.
Total debt $653.05M Interest coverage 8.39x +26% vs ALC Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than ALC.
What you should know
The case for and against ALC
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 10.5% last year.
-
Returns 2.9% on equity, ahead of 40% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 4/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 4.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.2% (peer median: 0.6%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
58.10x
Forward P/E
19.47x
P/B
1.72x
P/S
3.41x
EV/EBITDA
17.14x
PEG ratio
1.26x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
57.2%
Operating margin
14.6%
Net margin
5.9%
ROE
2.9%
ROA
2.8%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.25x
Current ratio
2.09x
Quick ratio
1.12x
Total debt
$5.30B
Total cash
$1.46B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$7.18B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
8.6%
EPS TTM
1.32
EPS 5Y CAGR
42.8%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$8.29B
Free CF TTM
$1.61B
FCF margin
22.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
0.5%
Payout ratio
26.6%
Last ex-div date
2026-05-06