September 21, 2026
Bonus Content: Cooper Companies Is at a 10-Year Valuation Low. Jana Thinks It Knows the Fix.
Dear Reader,
Elon Musk can build rockets. Satellites. Factories the size of cities.
But he cannot build minerals he does not control.
I’m Dr. Mark Skousen. My career began inside CIA headquarters, spotting patterns before they became obvious. I warned about Black Monday weeks in advance and called the March 2009 market bottom.
And on January 1, 2027, a U.S. defense restriction expands across the full supply chain for certain covered magnets and strategic materials originating in China and other covered countries.
That is not a headline. It is a countdown.
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Because every launch system, satellite network, military contract and AI buildout ultimately comes back to physical inputs. No minerals… no machines. No machines… no empire.
One small public company is pursuing a direct line to a vast new source of critical minerals – far from the traditional chokepoints that have trapped Western industry for decades.
The company is pursuing rights to recover mineral-rich nodules from the seafloor. Think of them as loose, golf-ball-sized deposits containing metals the 21st-century economy consumes by the ton.
This could give Musk something money alone cannot guarantee: a strategic supply line beyond China’s grip.
And if he chooses to buy rather than wait? The crowd will not receive a polite warning. The ticker could be repriced before most investors finish reading the press release.
My analysis has flagged this mineral play plus two other public companies positioned at the exact pressure points Musk still needs to control: compute and satellite communications.
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A hard deadline is colliding with a strategic bottleneck. Waiting is now a decision of its own.
Yours for peace, prosperity, and liberty, AEIOU,
Dr. Mark Skousen
Macroeconomic Strategist, The Oxford Club
P.S. The January 1, 2027, rule is already on the books. Once the countdown hits zero, the market will not care that you meant to look at this later. This obscure mineral play could become essential to Musk’s empire. Learn more details before the deadline – click here now.
Cooper Companies Is at a 10-Year Valuation Low. Jana Thinks It Knows the Fix.
Hey there, bargain hunter. Cooper Companies (COO) is sitting at a 10-year valuation low, an activist fund just went public with a list of demands, and the stock is trading in the mid-$50s. The question worth asking is not whether Jana Partners is right that management failed. The question is whether the pieces are worth more than the current market cap implies.
Scoreboard
Shares fell about 14.7% on September 10, 2026, in reaction to the fiscal Q3 2026 report and the cut to full-year guidance. They then bounced roughly 3% by September 18, 2026, after Jana’s letter went public. The stock is still down materially from its highs earlier in 2026, and the market cap sits near $10.5 billion.
What Actually Happened
Cooper cut its fiscal 2026 profit and revenue forecasts after weaker-than-expected contact lens demand. The company now expects adjusted earnings of $4.51 to $4.55 per share, down from its previous forecast of $4.58 to $4.66, while revenue guidance was reduced to $4.229 to $4.252 billion from $4.29 to $4.32 billion.
The weakness was concentrated in CooperVision, where Q3 revenue came in at $717.0 million. Cooper said it proactively reduced U.S. channel inventory, which hurt results and is expected to continue affecting Q4. Then, the same week, management confirmed it was retaining CooperSurgical after its strategic review. The company said it concluded that offers received were not in shareholders’ best interest. Jana had been waiting on that sale for months.
On September 18, 2026, Jana announced it had sent a letter to the board calling on it to initiate an immediate external CEO search, appoint a new board chair, and evaluate asset sales. Jana’s letter argued that slashing CooperVision segment growth due to inflated channel inventory, coming up empty on a long, drawn-out strategic review, and aggressively repurchasing stock ahead of both negative outcomes is a masterclass in how not to operate and oversee a company.
The Business and the Math
For fiscal 2025, CooperVision generated about $2.74 billion, or roughly 67% of net sales. CooperSurgical added fertility, office, and surgical products at about $1.35 billion, or roughly 33% of net sales. Two distinct businesses, one depressed stock price.
The contact lens market is moderately concentrated, with J&J Vision, Alcon, CooperVision, and Bausch + Lomb holding significant shares. CooperVision is a major player by revenue in a category with genuine recurring demand: once a patient is fitted, they reorder. That is a durable revenue base.
Free cash flow reached a record $273 million in Q3 FY2026, bringing the year-to-date total to $528 million, up 86%. Management also reiterated its objective of more than $2.2 billion in cumulative free cash flow for fiscal 2026 to 2028. Jana argues that the capital allocation strategy failed to realize value for CooperSurgical following billions spent to acquire it and failed to generate acceptable performance in CooperVision after heavy capital investment in recent years.
Is It Cheap?
The stock carries a P/E ratio around 18x based on recent pricing. Wall Street’s average 12-month price target and the current range of targets move frequently, but they generally sit above the mid-$50s level where the stock traded in mid-September 2026. For a business generating record free cash flow quarter by quarter, an ~18x earnings multiple on a depressed guidance year is not demanding.
The sum-of-parts framing is where it gets interesting. Peers like Alcon and Bausch + Lomb offer a margin and valuation benchmark. A standalone CooperVision, freed from a conglomerate discount and running under a disciplined acquirer, could reasonably attract a premium multiple. CooperSurgical with its fertility franchise is a different animal entirely, one that buyers turned down at a price Cooper’s board found insufficient. That gap may close under new leadership or tighter strategy.
Bull / Base / Bear
- Bull: Jana’s pressure forces a genuine external CEO search. New leadership relaunches a CooperVision sale process in 2027. A strategic buyer pays a high revenue multiple for the lens business, unlocking a sum-of-parts value well above the current market cap.
- Base: The board makes cosmetic governance changes. CooperVision organic growth recovers toward the low-single-digit range management guided for fiscal 2026 as U.S. inventory normalizes by Q4. Free cash flow accumulation funds buybacks, and the stock drifts toward consensus over 12 to 18 months.
- Bear: The board stonewalls Jana. Lower contact lens demand, ongoing inventory reductions, and reduced guidance create a sustained tough earnings environment. With no CEO change and no asset sale, the conglomerate discount deepens.
Action Plan
This is a situation where the catalyst is external and binary. Jana owns roughly 1.8% of the company, which is enough to be loud but not enough to force a vote unilaterally. For a conservative bargain hunter, the move is a starter position now and a larger add only if the board signals genuine willingness to engage. Set a mental stop near the 52-week low of about $51. For an aggressive bargain hunter, the activist discount at a 10-year valuation low is the whole trade.
Cheap Investor Checklist
- Does the board respond formally to Jana’s letter within 30 days?
- Is an external CEO search announced before the fiscal Q4 report?
- Does CooperVision’s mid-single-digit consumption growth continue even as channel inventory normalizes?
- Does free cash flow stay on track toward the 2026 to 2028 cumulative target?
- Does a new CooperVision sale process emerge in fiscal 2027?
- Does CooperSurgical fertility growth hold at or above 5% organic?
- Does the stock hold above its 52-week low near $51 on any further negative news?
Bottom Line
If Jana gets traction and a new CEO relaunches strategic alternatives, COO in the mid-$50s can look like a bargain. If the board circles the wagons and nothing structurally changes, the valuation low has room to get lower. The free cash flow is real, the lens business is recurring, and the activist pressure is public. That combination earns a starter position. It does not earn a full commitment until the board blinks.
