Strategic Positioning and Market Adaptation Justify Buy Rating for Align TechnologyWe attended Align Technology's GP Vegas, bringing together dentists, dental professionals, and company representatives for a host of educational and informational sessions from KOLs and company leaders. As a part of the event, we also attended a sellside-only lunch Q&A session with CEO Joseph Hogan, CFO John Morici, and various other company leaders. Given the rocky 2Q results, the focus of the management meeting was on the growth pressures. This included affordability, ALGN's product/pricing strategy, cost management, and levers to re-accelerate growth. Our main takeaway is that ALGN's innovative portfolio and end-to-end tools remain far ahead of competitors, but the premium offering is certainly more sensitive to the near-term pressures on discretionary spend and macro variables that are beyond the company's control.