Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Could you share your thoughts on Dentsply International? Thanks for your help.

Article Excerpt

Dentsply International, $33.81, symbol XRAY on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 143.4 million; Market cap: $4.8 billion; www.dentsply.com), develops, makes and markets products for the dental industry. The company’s consumable and laboratory products include artificial teeth, root-canal instruments, impression materials, dental sealants and anesthetics. Dentsply also develops and makes dental equipment, including X-ray systems, cameras, and computer-imaging systems and related software. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, Dentsply’s revenue rose 7.8%, to a record $609.4 million from $565.1 million. Earnings per share rose 10.0%, to $0.55 from $0.50. The company’s results improved even though the March earthquake and tsunami cut its sales in Japan. The disaster also caused a shortage of orthodontic products from Japanese suppliers. Dentsply recently agreed to buy Astra Tech AB from AstraZeneca for $1.8 billion. Astra Tech is a leading provider of dental implant products, based in Sweden. It also makes consumable medical devices for the urology and surgery markets. Integrating such a big purchase adds risk, as does…