- Citing accelerating revenue growth and fading patent expiration concerns, Morgan Stanley has upgraded Align Technology (NASDAQ:ALGN) to Overweight ahead of Thursday's Q1 report, and hiked its target by $23 to $79.
- Align's partnership with Sirona Dental, the growing digitization of dental offices, and rising international penetration are also seen as catalysts. "We believe customer base expansion and digitization will grow both top-line and bottom-line results, and more than offset expected volume and price declines resulting from the entrance of competitors upon patent expirations relative to expectations" International is expected to rise to 46% of 2020 volumes from 30% of 2015 volumes.
- The upgrade comes less than a month after Align announced a CEO change.