What a wonderful investment Align Tech. has been. However, for a long time I have been musing on what the valuation has become. Yesterday I sold to raise cash for future prospects at better valuations; maybe even ALGN itself. That would be nice.
My valuation ratios giveth and my valuation ratios, in extremis, taketh away. It will be interesting to follow to see if my decision to sell on valuation was dead wrong. It may be if the company uses the present stock value to make bolt-on acquisitions at good prices, even if that widens it from its unique core business and reduces growth.
Interesting to hear that you have been selling; I’ve been interested in buying for the last couple of months and haven’t pulled the trigger - yet. What is very interesting is that they only have roughly 6% penetration of the teenage market and doctors are now more than 12 months ago to use their procedure as they are more comfortable with it. High valuation - yep; own the market; yep; disruptive - I think so; faster than traditional - yep. I am waiting for the next earnings release to make the decision as I view this as a very long term play.
Thanks Sox. Those were exactly my feelings about the company too and why I held it so long. You may well be right and certainly it was a really dislikeable sale. However, I am trying to bring greater discipline about valuation to the pf and I felt ALGN, even with its qualities, had a valuation rich beyond a point I did not want to go.