Cooper Urged by JANA Partners to Replace CEO, Make Major Changes

07:48 AM EDT, 09/18/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Cooper (COO) shareholder JANA Partners is urging the contact-lens maker to immediately launch an external search for a new chief executive officer, appoint a new board chair and evaluate asset sales in a letter dated Thursday. JANA asked the board to pursue these actions amid "chronic underperformance," "serial negative [earnings] surprises" and "poor capital allocation," along with the recent cut to the company's CooperVision segment growth due to "inflated" channel inventory, the letter showed. JANA said the board needs to revise compensation metrics and evaluate the sale of the fertility and medical device assets, among other issues. "These and numerous other missteps have resulted in a share price that has dramatically underperformed peers over the one-, three- and five-year periods, eroded shareholder confidence and impaired the company's valuation," JANA said in the letter. Cooper did not immediately respond to a request for comment by MT Newswires on Friday.