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World's largest eye-care device maker, selling contact lenses, eye-drops and cataract/vision-correction surgical equipment.
World's largest eye-care device maker, selling contact lenses, eye-drops and cataract/vision-correction surgical equipment.
Sells the machines used in cataract surgery plus the single-use implants and packs consumed with each operation, which repeat as procedures grow, while contact lenses and eye drops go through eye-care professionals and retail chains. Spun out of Novartis in 2019; Swiss-domiciled and listed in Zurich and New York.
In one line: A pure-play, larger Bausch + Lomb.
Moat: narrow (brand, installed base, switching costs). Surgeons trained on Alcon's cataract platforms and a broad lens/drop range create switching costs and R&D scale.
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland · Founded: 1945 · Employees: 25,942
Size Alcon (ALC.SW) is a Switzerland Health Care company (Medical Specialties) with a market value of $37.5B, the 16th largest of 158 Switzerland companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at CHF 61.30 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 22.2%, against +26.5% for the median peer and +11.6% for the Switzerland market (cap-weighted) — 8th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 0.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +8.7%); the operating margin is 10.9% (peer median 21.2%).
Valuation It trades at 21.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 26.9× (6th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 13% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +7 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.8 points below its cost of capital (5.5% WACC).
Credit Alcon has 2 bonds outstanding ($1.11B), rated BBB+ by the agencies and trading like A at a weighted spread of 77 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 10 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | CHF 8.62B | CHF 8.64B | CHF 8.73B | CHF 8.50B | CHF 8.33B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | +3% | +2% | — |
| Gross profit | CHF 4.90B | CHF 4.77B | CHF 4.86B | CHF 4.72B | CHF 4.59B |
| EBITDA | CHF 1.96B | CHF 2.24B | CHF 2.30B | CHF 2.16B | CHF 2.01B |
| Net income | CHF 511M | CHF 814M | CHF 897M | CHF 875M | CHF 320M |
| Free cash flow | CHF 1.37B | CHF 1.44B | CHF 1.41B | CHF 656M | CHF 555M |
| Capital expenditure | CHF 566M | CHF 551M | CHF 590M | CHF 765M | CHF 712M |
| Total debt | CHF 4.27B | CHF 4.16B | CHF 4.66B | CHF 4.33B | CHF 4.70B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcon ALC.SW | $37.5B | +22% | -1% | 11% | 21.4× | 12.9% |
| Johnson & Johnson JNJ | $665B | +26% | +8% | 26% | 24.5× | 3.5% |
| Bausch + Lomb BLCO.TO | $7.20B | +31% | +11% | 9% | 17.3× | 11.0% |
| Cooper Companies (The) COO | $11.9B | +4% | +5% | 19% | 13.8× | 9.4% |
| Carl Zeiss Meditec AFX.DE | $3.51B | +40% | 0% | 8% | 26.8× | 13.7% |
| EssilorLuxottica EL.PA | $101B | +12% | +8% | 12% | 26.6× | 19.4% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | ALC.SW | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +17.4% | +10.5% | 6th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +22.2% | +26.5% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -10.3% | -7.6% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -0.9% | +8.7% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 10.9% | 21.2% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 21.4× | 26.9× | 6th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 12.9% | 16.2% | 8th least demanding of 21 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.1% | +9.7% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +6.8 pp | +2.8 pp | 10th most demanding of 21 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -1.8 pp | +5.2 pp | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 17.2× | 23.5× | 8th cheapest of 20 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.6× | 0.9× | 9th most indebted of 20 |
| Bond spread | 77 bp | 75 bp | 5th tightest of 9 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcon ALC.SW | Switzerland | $37.5B | +22% | -1% | 11% | 21.4× | 12.9% | +6.1% |
| GE HealthCare GEHC | United States | $37.2B | +30% | +7% | 14% | 15.4× | 4.3% | +3.7% |
| Mettler Toledo MTD | United States | $34.5B | +53% | +7% | 28% | 33.9× | 20.3% | +5.5% |
| Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics 300760.SZ | China | $33.4B | +9% | +5% | 28% | 27.1× | 0.9% | +9.7% |
| ResMed RMD | United States | $33.1B | +14% | +9% | 34% | 19.1× | 4.9% | +12.1% |
| Illumina ILMN | United States | $32.2B | +50% | +6% | 21% | 35.7× | 27.1% | +6.0% |
| Waters WAT | United States | $45.0B | +29% | +81% | 10% | 28.6× | 46.2% | +6.0% |
| Hoya 7741.T | Japan | $47.4B | -23% | +13% | 31% | 26.7× | 13.3% | +11.6% |
| Dexcom DXCM | United States | $29.6B | +31% | +13% | 24% | 27.0× | 18.5% | +19.3% |
| Agilent Technologies A | United States | $49.3B | +51% | +9% | 24% | 26.6× | 22.6% | +5.4% |
| West Pharmaceutical Services WST | United States | $27.9B | +23% | +13% | 23% | 39.8× | 25.2% | +7.5% |
| Medline MDLN | United States | $52.1B | 0% | +12% | 6% | 26.1× | 17.1% | +9.9% |
| Idexx Laboratories IDXX | United States | $53.3B | +21% | +12% | 32% | 41.5× | 28.0% | +9.7% |
| Siemens Healthineers SHL.DE | Germany | $55.9B | +31% | -1% | 15% | 18.9× | 9.0% | +10.1% |
| Sartorius Stedim Biotech DIM.PA | France | $24.7B | +38% | +4% | 19% | 45.5× | 33.1% | +9.2% |
| Steris STE | United States | $24.6B | +22% | +8% | 20% | 21.4× | 13.7% | +13.8% |
| Becton Dickinson BDX | United States | $57.7B | +43% | -3% | 15% | 16.0× | 9.6% | +6.3% |
| Edwards Lifesciences EW | United States | $58.9B | +28% | +15% | 29% | 31.4× | 17.2% | +6.7% |
| Terumo 4543.T | Japan | $23.4B | +25% | +14% | 17% | 24.6× | 8.7% | +13.0% |
| Boston Scientific BSX | United States | $62.0B | -21% | +9% | 21% | 13.8× | 5.0% | +15.2% |
| Straumann STMN.SW | Switzerland | $20.4B | +25% | +2% | 21% | 31.9× | 15.2% | +12.8% |
Alcon has 2 bonds outstanding with $1.11B face value. The agencies rate it BBB+; its bonds trade like A. Weighted yield 3.78%, a spread of 77 bp over government bonds.