Today the British Government announced a £600m deficit in the budget this quarter, blaming poor corporation tax returns on the shortfall. Dentistry.co.uk looks at how the dental industry performed over the last quarter both in the UK and overseas.
With austerity measures being applied across much of Europe amid what is being called a ‘double-dip’ recession UK gross domestic product (GDP) shrunk by 0.7% in the last quarter. In spite of declining market conditions some of the biggest names in dentistry posted better-than-expected results for Q2. Dentistry focuses on three of the companies that saw the most action at the markets this August.
Colgate
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) posted profits of $627m – up 0.8% on the same quarter last year. Volume growth of 9.5% in Europe/South Pacific, led by the UK, helped see Colgate increase its market share in the toothpaste and manual toothbrush sectors to its highest ever with a 45% share in the toothpaste market worldwide. On posting its quarterly results Colgate-Palmolive shares jumped 5% to $106.38.
Sirona
Despite a 17% fall in net profit on the same quarter last year to $30.3m, shares in Sirona Dental Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: SIRO) soared on publication of its quarterly results which significantly exceeded the expectations of Wall Street analysts – rising more than 10% as trading opened from $43.36 to $48.25. Sirona’s share price has continued to rise on the back of these results and currently sits at $53.59.
Henry Schein
Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSIC) posted record earnings, reporting an increase in net profit of 3.8% and, critically, increased their adjusted earnings per share (EPS) by 9.9% to $1.11. This came despite a 1.3% decline in the company’s global dental sales, which is attributed to foreign currency exchange. Having fallen over the previous week the company’s share price bounced back after the income report was published.
Analyst predictions for the dental industry (indeed for industry in general) for the past quarter were, broadly speaking, pessimistic due to poor economic conditions and as a result many a number of companies that have outperformed predictions have seen share prices as a result, including Dentsply International (NASDAQ: XRAY) and pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (LON: GSK). US multinational conglomerates Danaher Corp (NYSE: DHR) and 3M (NYSE: MMM), who own Kavo and 3M Espe respectively, also saw gains after their Q2 results were posted while handpiece manufacturer NSK (JASDAQ: 7716) and Swiss implant maker Straumann (SIX: STMN) saw a continuing downward trend after missing its predictions for the first half of 2012.
