4. Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 49
Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) is a medical device company working on manufacturing Invisalign clear aligners and iTero intraoral scanners for orthodontists and general practitioner dentists. The company ranks 4th on our list of medical device stocks for 2021.
Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) announced an accelerated stock repurchase agreement in collaboration with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) this May. The stock has gained in light of the announcement of this $100 million transaction to buy back the company’s common stock. For the first quarter of 2021, the company’s EPS was valued at $2.49 versus estimates of $2.01, and it raked in revenue valued at $894.77 million, representing a 16.89% growth year over year. Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) has a gross profit margin of 72.66% and has gained 15.18% in the past 6 months plus 14.86% year to date. The stock currently has a consensus Buy rating.
By the end of the first quarter of 2021, 49 hedge funds out of the 866 tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN), with a total stake value of roughly $2.83 billion. This is compared to 50 hedge fund holders in the previous quarter, with stakes valued at about $2.48 billion.
Harding Loevner, an investment management firm, mentioned Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) in its fourth-quarter 2020 investor letter. Here’s what they said:
“If you must head to one of the economy’s hot spots, perhaps look for soft wear rather than software. Align Technology was founded in 1997 in a Silicon Valley duplex with a singular vision: use technology to straighten teeth. Align pioneered computer-aided invisible orthodontics as an alternative to metal braces, and has now treated over 9 million patients with its Invisalign clear aligners. Align utilizes direct-to-consumer advertising to pull patients into participating dentists’ offices, equipping practitioners with real-time visualization and algorithm-assisted treatment planning to create and fit bespoke flexible plastic aligners. The company has been expanding its acceptance among practitioners for decades, but during the pandemic the numbers of those seeing the benefits of being able to treat patients with less chair time and fewer visits seems to have reached a tipping point. Like Disney, Align has also used the crisis to expand its digital marketing, reaching stay-at home teens and adults spending hours on Zoom, increasingly focused on how their teeth look on camera. As dental offices have reopened, Align’s earnings have benefitted from pent-up demand. It is emerging from the pandemic with a larger market share in orthodontics and a larger mind share with consumers.”
