Dentsply Sirona initiated with an Outperform at Leerink

Leerink initiated coverage of Dentsply Sirona with an Outperform rating and $42 price target. The firm notes Dentsply Sirona has had a number of twists and turns over the last few years, including the COVID drop and rebound, the highly successful launch and subsequent slowdown in Primescan IOS growth, and the major C-Suite turnover, amongst other areas. Going forward, Dentsply’s model is now more grounded for sustainable earnings growth, driven by improving top-line performance, executing on targeted cost efforts, and a more robust buyback/capital return profile, Leerink says. As dental trends start to improve, particularly in the U.S., and the company’s various strategic initiatives take hold, the firm sees a pathway that gets Dentsply pretty close to its $3.00 FY26 target, which could be easily bridged with additional buybacks. Leerink sees these factors as underappreciated at the current valuation.