Jana Partners Pushes Cooper Companies to Replace CEO Albert White

Yahoo Finance·28 Sep 2026·

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Summary · why it matters

Jana Partners is pressing The Cooper Companies, Inc. to replace CEO Albert White and its board chair and to explore selling all or part of its CooperVision and CooperSurgical businesses. The activist, which built its stake in the contact lens maker roughly a year ago, began the push in mid-September 2026, after a roughly 28% decline in Cooper's stock since Jana first disclosed its position. Jana cites what it calls inventory management and capital allocation problems and has threatened a proxy fight ahead of a January nomination deadline if the company does not engage. Cooper's third-quarter revenue reached $1.07 billion, non-GAAP earnings rose 4%, and free cash flow increased 66% to $273 million, though CooperVision's third-quarter revenue stayed flat as U.S. channel inventory reductions weighed on results. Management expects fourth-quarter organic CooperVision revenue to range from a 2% decline to no growth.

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The Cooper Companies, Inc

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Jana Partners is pushing to replace CEO Albert White and explore selling CooperVision/CooperSurgical, citing inventory management and capital allocation problems.

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