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Sentiment · FY2026 Q1
What companies say about each other on earnings calls — extracted verbatim from public transcripts. Mentions from the newest quarter are a Pro feature.
“Our partnership with the health care financing platform, HFD, continues to grow, and doctors and DSOs enrolled in HFD are seen as incremental lift to Invisalign treatment.”
Align's partnership with patient-financing platform HFD is growing and lifts Invisalign adoption via affordability.
“In The Americas, we deepen partnership with top DSOs, building on our successful Heartland and Spauld doctors relationships.”
Align cites Heartland (a large dental service organization) among the top DSO partners driving its double-digit Americas volume growth.
“Align and Healthcare Finance Direct, or HFD, are partnering to increase the affordability of treatment.”
Align partnered with patient-financing provider Healthcare Finance Direct (HFD) to improve affordability and lift Invisalign treatment conversion.
“And then the third way is external, and HFD is 1 of them. There's many different companies that provide this, but we're seeing a good combination of finding the right way to get to HFD, meeting the requirements that they have.”
Align Technology names HFD as one of its external third-party patient financing partners, part of a mix of financing options (direct pay, doctor financing, external lenders) helping patients afford Invisalign treatment.
“we know that your comments really refer to Angel Aligner or maybe some other Chinese suppliers coming in”
Align's CEO characterizes Chinese clear-aligner competitor Angel Aligner as competing on unsustainable pricing, implying a negative read-through for that competitor's business model.
“The DSO business continues to outpace our retail doctors globally. And in the U.S., it's driven by our largest DSO partners, Smile Doctors and Heartland Dental, and also had strong growth in iTero scanner sales as DSO invested in their members' practices end-to-end digital workflows”
Heartland Dental is named alongside Smile Doctors as one of Align's largest DSO customer partners, driving faster growth than the retail doctor channel.
“The DSO business continues to outpace our retail doctors globally. And in the U.S., it's driven by our largest DSO partners, Smile Doctors and Heartland Dental, and also had strong growth in iTero scanner sales as DSO invested in their members' practices end-to-end digital workflows”
Smile Doctors is named as one of Align's largest DSO customer partners driving outsized Clear Aligner and iTero scanner growth in the DSO channel.
“completed $30 million equity investment in Smile Doctors, the largest orthodontic focused DSO in the U.S. with more than 450 locations in 32 states”
Align Technology took a $30 million equity stake in Smile Doctors, the largest orthodontic-focused DSO in the US, deepening its financial and strategic ties to the practice group.
| Analyst | Firm | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Jon Block | Stifel | 12 (0%) |
| Jeff Johnson | Robert W. Baird | 11 (9%) |
| Jason Bednar | Piper Sandler | 10 (10%) |
| Mike Cherny | Leerink Partners | 8 (0%) |
| Elizabeth Anderson | Evercore ISI | 8 (0%) |
| Brandon Vazquez | William Blair | 8 (0%) |
| Steve Valiquette | Mizuho Securities | 6 (0%) |
| Mike Ryskin | Bank of America | 6 (33%) |
| Erin Wright | Morgan Stanley | 5 (0%) |
| Vik Chopra | Wells Fargo | 4 (0%) |
| Firm | Analysts | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Stifel | 1 | 12 (0%) |
| Robert W. Baird | 1 | 11 (9%) |
| Piper Sandler | 1 | 10 (10%) |
| William Blair | 1 |
| 8 (0%) |
| Leerink Partners | 1 | 8 (0%) |
| Evercore ISI | 1 | 8 (0%) |
| Bank of America | 1 | 6 (33%) |
| Mizuho Securities | 1 | 6 (0%) |
Align Technology delivered record Q4 revenue of $1.048 billion growing 5.3% with record Clear Aligner volumes of 677,000 up 7.7% as non-GAAP EPS of $3.29 surged $0.85 year-over-year and non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 26.1%, the highest since 2021. The direct-to-consumer channel reached approximately 25% of volume and delivered double-digit growth globally. Management introduced FY2026 guidance calling for 3-4% revenue growth, mid-single-digit volume growth, and approximately 23.7% non-GAAP operating margin reflecting 100 basis points of improvement.
Demand | Competitive Dynamics | Pricing | Product Launch | Margin | Macroeconomic | Guidance Reliability | FX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024Q4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2025Q1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 2025Q2 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2025Q3 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025Q4 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| 2026Q1 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| '24Q4 | '25Q1 | '25Q2 | '25Q3 | '25Q4 | '26Q1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demand | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 6 |
| Competitive Dynamics | 5 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 2 |
| Pricing | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | |
| Product Launch | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | |
| Margin | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |
| Macroeconomic | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| Guidance Reliability | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| FX | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Company | Score | Trend | Rev YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
ALGN Align Technology | 6 | +6.2% | |
| ABT Abbott Laboratories | 6 | +7.8% | |
| BSX Boston Scientific | 6 | +11.6% | |
| DXCM DexCom | 9 | +15.1% | |
| EW Edwards Lifesciences | 9 | +16.7% | |
| MDT Medtronic | 8 | +9.9% | |
| PODD Insulet Corporation | 8 | +33.9% | |
| STE Steris | 7 | +7.3% | |
| SYK Stryker Corporation | 4 | +2.6% | |
| ZBH Zimmer Biomet | 9 | +9.3% |