Here's Why You Should Retain Glaukos Stock in Your Portfolio Now

Glaukos Corporation GKOS is well-poised for growth on the back of expansion of interventional glaucoma, clinical and commercial synergies between iDose TR and iStent infinite, and long-term operating leverage. However, physician workflow, infrastructure constraints and margin pressure remain key concerns.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 32.2% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 4.9% growth. The S&P 500 Index has increased 12.1% in the same time frame.

Glaukos, with a market capitalization of $6.82 billion, is a leading ophthalmic medical technology and pharmaceutical company. The company has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 22.19%.

Positive Factors Driving Prospects

Expanding Interventional Glaucoma as Standard of Care: Glaukos is positioning itself at the center of a structural shift in glaucoma treatment, as care transitions from chronic topical eye drops to interventional solutions. Management highlighted that more than 12 million U.S. eyes are currently treated with medications, yet only a fraction receive procedural therapy. This mismatch represents a long runway for growth as physicians increasingly embrace earlier intervention.

Products, such as iDose TR and iStent infinite, align directly with this paradigm shift, offering durable pressure control and improved patient compliance. Over time, the migration toward interventional glaucoma as potential standard of care could significantly expand Glaukos’ addressable market and support sustained procedural volume growth.

Synergy Across iDose and iStent Infinite Platforms: Glaukos is strengthening its competitive position by building clinical and commercial synergies between iDose TR and iStent infinite. The company is running Level-1 trials evaluating iDose in combination with cataract surgery and in combination with iStent infinite, seeking to demonstrate incremental intraocular pressure reduction versus standalone procedures. These studies aim to validate a multi-product treatment strategy that can be tailored across disease stages. If successful, the combined use of both platforms could drive higher per-patient revenues, deepen physician loyalty, and create portfolio pull-through effects that reinforce Glaukos’ leadership across the interventional glaucoma care continuum.

Long-Term Operating Leverage From Manufacturing and Scale: Glaukos’ long-term growth strategy is supported by significant investments in manufacturing and infrastructure designed to drive operating leverage. The company recently began construction on a 200,000-square-foot research, development, and manufacturing facility in Alabama to support future production of Epioxa and pipeline therapies.

As higher-margin procedural pharmaceuticals scale, management expects continued gross margin expansion and improved cost efficiency. With more than $278 million in cash and no debt, Glaukos is well positioned to fund growth while maintaining balance sheet flexibility. Over time, this manufacturing scale should enable stronger cash generation and earnings power.

Key Challenges

Epioxa Access, Pricing and Ramp Risk: Despite the transformative potential of Epioxa, its commercialization path is expected to be slow and complex. With a wholesale acquisition cost of $78,500 and initial reliance on a miscellaneous J-code, patient access in 2026 will be gated by payer adoption, site-of-care readiness and reimbursement system updates.

Management acknowledged that the launch will follow a “crawl, walk, jog” trajectory, with meaningful contribution only emerging over time. Any delays in payer coverage or provider onboarding could limit near-term revenues and create uncertainty around early adoption, making Epioxa a longer-term rather than an immediate growth catalyst.

Physician Workflow and Infrastructure Constraints: The shift toward interventional glaucoma requires material changes in physician workflows and clinical infrastructure. Surgeons must adapt operating room schedules, referral pathways, and reimbursement processes to accommodate a more procedure-driven model. Glaukos acknowledged that these logistical adjustments take time and vary widely by practice.

Additionally, optometrists must be more actively engaged in earlier disease detection and referral. Until these operational hurdles are addressed at scale, adoption of iDose and iStent infinite may progress unevenly across regions, slowing the pace at which the broader interventional glaucoma paradigm can fully take hold.

Elevated Commercial and Access Investments Will Pressure Margins: To drive adoption of iDose and Epioxa, Glaukos is significantly increasing spending on education, reimbursement support, patient services and field infrastructure. These investments are essential for building awareness, improving access, and navigating payer systems, particularly in rare disease markets like keratoconus. However, this front-loaded cost structure will likely weigh on near-term margins, even as revenues grow.

Management expects meaningful operating leverage only as volumes scale and infrastructure is absorbed. Until then, profit growth may lag top-line growth, creating a trade-off between long-term expansion and short-term earnings performance.

Estimate Trend

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 revenues is pegged at $497 million, indicating a 29.6% improvement from the previous year’s level.

The consensus mark for loss per share is pinned at 29 cents, indicating a 66.4% improvement from the year-ago reported number. The consensus estimate for loss per share has remained stable in the past 30 days.

Glaukos Corporation Price

Glaukos Corporation price | Glaukos Corporation Quote

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Phibro Animal Health PAHC, Boston Scientific BSX and ResMed RMD.

Phibro Animal Health, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 12.8%. PAHC’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 20.77%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Phibro Animal Health’s shares have rallied 36.7% against the industry’s 10.7% decline in the past six months.

Boston Scientific, carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 16.4%. BSX’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 7.36%.

Boston Scientific’s shares have lost 11.7% compared with the industry’s 10.7% decline in the past six months.

ResMed, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 13.7%. RMD’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 3.04%.

ResMed’s shares have lost 6.7% compared to the industry’s 10.7% growth in the past six months.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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