Align’s Guidance: Wearing a Retainer in Public (ALGN)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Align_tech_logoAlign Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) has just posted some mixed earnings.  Regardless of Wall Street’s and Main Street’s love of Invisalign, the stock is being pounded.  The company reported earnings at $0.06 EPS on a 4.3% revenue rise to $79.9 million.  First Call had estimates of $0.05 EPS on $79.7 million in revenues.  The problem is guidance. 

The company believes it will see non-GAAP EPS of $0.04 to $0.06 andRevenues at $64 to $65 million.  Unfortunately, First Call estimatesare $0.11 EPS and $80.17 million.  For fiscal 2008, it sees non-GAAPEPS in a range of $0.29 to $0.33 on $309 to $314 million, whileestimates are $0.40 EPS and $320.99 million in revenues.

As far as share buybacks, it bought back 2.2 million shares for a $27.7million at an average price of $12.65; and it has $22.3 million leftunder its existing buyback.  The company can easily fund this buybackwith its $110.1 million in cash and equivalents and $57.95 million intotal liabilities.  The company is eliminating $5M to $6M from expensesin the second half as well, which will be from layoffs and othermeasures.

The company did note that its revenue growth expectations have come inas consumer spending has continued to soften.  In short, when you arefeeling poor it’s easier to put off a decision to straighten your teeth.

Despite the fact that this was already down close to 60% from its52-week highs, shares are challenging 52-week lows at $9.50.  Its prior52-week range was $9.65 to $29.30.

Jon C. Ogg
July 29, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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