Cooper Sales Rise 34 Percent in Its Second Quarter

Cooper Cos. Inc. posted a 34 percent increase in revenues to $96.4 million in its second quarter. Earnings per share increased to 48 cents compared with 32 cents for the quarter in 2002. The company reported its second-quarter earnings after markets closed Wednesday.

Cooper owns and operates CooperVision Inc. in Fairport. CooperVision posted a 39 percent increase in revenues to $78.1 million from $56.1 million a year ago. Sales of toric lenses grew 23 percent in the second quarter and now account for 40 percent of CooperVision's soft lens revenues. Sales in United States made up more than half of CooperVision's revenues.

'I attribute CVI's exceptional performance this quarter to three factors: a robust worldwide contact lens market, continued strong demand for our specialty products and increased momentum with our value-added spherical products such as Frequency Aspheric that continue to take market share from two-week commodity spherical lenses,' CEO Thomas Bender said.

During the third quarter the company expects to launch its Frequency Multifocal lens in markets outside the U.S. Company officials predict CooperVision will post $6 million to $8 million in worldwide multifocal revenues. Cooper's surgical business, CooperSurgical Inc., reported $18.3 million in revenues for the second quarter, up from $15.8 million a year ago. Cooper (NYSE: COO) officials expect $102 million to $105 million in fiscal third-quarter revenues.