Dentsply Earnings: Tough Road Likely Still Ahead, but Q1 Results Show Mild Stability; Shares Cheap

No-moat Dentsply Sirona reported first-quarter earnings that came in slightly ahead of our expectations. Total sales of $879 million were down 7.8% year over year, but roughly flat excluding the Byte discontinuation and currency headwinds. Soft patient foot traffic and weak doctor sentiment that pervaded the dental market in 2024 seeped into the new year and we think the rest of 2025 is likely to see more challenges amid tariff uncertainty and macro volatility. That said, we were slightly encouraged by the firm’s ability to deliver moderately stable results in this environment. While this quarterly result doesn’t reflect the tariffs that took effect in April, and we had lowered our sales and earnings per share assumptions ahead of earnings in April, management reaffirmed its full- year guidance for an organic sales decline of 2%-4% and EPS of $1.80-$2.00, giving investors some much-needed confidence behind the name.