Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Morici: Yes, Jason, you’re right. We don’t give that level of detail, but we saw more doctors that we ship to in APAC related to China, as you said, and we saw it in other regions as well. So we are pleased with the number of doctors that we’re shipping to. It’s a reflection of our products. And what they want to do and then as well, being able to be up on a utilization basis is a good metric as well.

Jason Bednar: Okay. I guess maybe just to follow-up there, John, real quick. Can you confirm whether or not you saw that increase in North America in Orthos or GPs or both?

John Morici: Yes, we saw improvement for North America as well.

Jason Bednar: Okay, all right. Great. And then I know we got some good details on some of your APAC markets, including China. But I guess wondering if you can talk about just monthly cadence of U.S. trends throughout the quarter and maybe even here in July. Some of the work we’ve done shows that there’s maybe a bit more mix trends in April and June, May was pretty strong. I guess just wondering how that drives what you were seeing in your case shipment trends throughout the quarter? And then same question for EMEA, if you could elaborate just on how the quarter unfolded in that region? Thank you.

John Morici: Yes. We’re really not giving — like — I don’t really want to get into the month-by-month activity. I think the results kind of show where they were, Jason, and then it also kind of reflects what we’ve been able to give from a guidance standpoint as well. But without getting into months by country and region and so on, it gets a little difficult to give that level of detail. But I think the results that we have for Q2 and what we’ve talked about how the sequential improvement and what we were able to see on a quarter-over-quarter basis and what it means for the guidance kind of speak to that.

Jason Bednar: Okay, fair enough. Thanks.

John Morici: Thanks, Jason.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Brandon Couillard with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Brandon Couillard: Hey thanks guys.

Joseph Hogan: Hi, Brandon.

Brandon Couillard: You mentioned scanner ASPs as a bad guy in terms of segment gross margin sequentially and year-over-year. Joe, could you just talk about the competitive environment and whether you’re seeing pricing pressure intensifying, just your macro view there would be helpful. Thanks.

Joseph Hogan: Yes, I wouldn’t call it, a bad guy. I think what we tried to communicate was, we have a mix in there that’s from a price standpoint. We feel good about our upper-end product line and the prices we’re able to get for a 5D Plus and 5D Flex and it’s a premier scanner in the marketplace. As you mentioned before and as you know, I mean, there’s a certain sensitivity in the marketplace about these kind of capital expenditures in a dental office when a lot of the economics are challenged right now in the orthodontic and in dental side. So we see that. But despite that, you could see we turned really good numbers around. Our CPOs help us to fight on the lower end. CPOs are the certified preowned that allow us to go down market if we have to.

And obviously, when you look at the marketplace, it’s pretty — if you have the — what we would call the confocal imaging scanners, like that we lead with. And then there’s products like Metadata whatever they try to take the low end and whatever. But we feel — I feel good about our capability, our value proposition, and I think our numbers reflect that this quarter and in the past too. So I’m not saying there’s not a competitive environment. I just feel we have a superior product line, and then we have a good value stream that we offer from a standpoint of the integration with Invisalign through iTero and then [indiscernible].