Morgan Keegan Says The Cooper Cos. (COO) Is Recession Resistant

Morgan Keegan analysts Lawrence S. Keusch and Konstantin Tcherepachenets maintained their Outperform rating for shares of The Cooper Companies Inc COO, with a price target of $45 per share. Keusch and Tcherepachenets said that although The Cooper Companies Inc faced the risk of a slowing European economy, contact lenses are recession resistant purchases. They also noted that most of The Cooper Companies Inc growth comes from Eastern Europe and that Greece, Portugal, and Spain, (Europe's most troubled economies) are not in the company's top three sales areas. The Morgan Keegan analysts wrote, "Cooper shares have declined 10% since the recent highs were set for the S&P 500 on April 23, 2010. Despite Cooper shares having recently outperformed the equity markets, we continue to find the valuation attractive. And while investors remain concerned about European exposure, FX should be manageable for Cooper with roughly 50% of its sales coming from UK manufacturing and synthetic hedging of 2/3 of the euro exposure. Consequently, we expect a positive tone when fiscal 2Q results are reported on June 3rd. There are no changes to our estimates, $45 blended fair value, and Outperform rating."