Invisalign Parent’s Stock Pops on Earnings. What Has Wall Street Excited.

Align Technology’s third-quarter adjusted earnings beat analysts’ estimates. (Dreamstime)

Key Points

• Align Technology’s third-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.61 a share top Wall Street consensus.
• Global clear aligner volumes increase 0.5% sequentially and 4.9% year over year, driven by growth in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and EMEA.
• A record 88,000 doctors globally submitted Invisalign cases, including an all-time high for teenage and child cases, despite a decline in imaging systems revenue.

Align Technology stock jumped Thursday as the Invisalign parent’s third-quarter earnings tempered concerns about falling demand for its clear aligners.

Adjusted earnings for the third quarter came in at $2.61 a share, surpassing the $2.40 consensus among analysts polled by FactSet. Total revenue was $995.7 million, up 1.8% from the same period last year but down 1.7% from the previous quarter. The figure came in above Align’s guidance of $965 million to $985 million.

Global volumes for clear aligners increased 0.5% sequentially and 4.9% from the prior year. President and CEO Joe Hogan pointed to growth outside the U.S., particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, and the EMEA, a broad geographic region encompassing Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

In the EMEA region alone, clear aligner volumes increased double digits from the previous year. Revenue for the category grew 2.4% from the previous year to $805.8 million, also ticking up slightly from last quarter.

Shares began rising after Align posted earnings after the closing bell Wednesday and continued their ascent Thursday, up 9.9%. The benchmark S&P 500 index was down 0.3%.

Earnings came as a relief to investors worried about commentary from the previous quarter, when the company noted that orthodontic-treatment starts had declined for four years straight. A record 88,000 doctors globally submitted Invisalign cases in the most recent quarter, with an all-time high number of doctors submitting Invisalign start cases for teenagers and children.

The print wasn’t perfect. Revenue attributed to Align’s imaging systems and computer-aided design services was $189.9 million, down year over year as well as sequentially. However, the decline was expected, largely due to “capital equipment seasonality,” the company said.

For the full year, Align is guiding for clear aligner volume growth in the mid-single digits, and revenue flat to slightly up from the $4 billion reported in 2024.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com