Align Technology

Align Technology is the company behind Invisalign, the clear plastic aligners that have taken share from traditional metal braces, and the iTero digital scanners that dentists use to design them. It dominates the clear-aligner market it helped create, though its results are sensitive to consumer spending, since orthodontic treatment is often a discretionary purchase. Align pays no dividend. It reinvests in research, manufacturing capacity and its digital platform, and returns capital selectively through share buybacks rather than distributions. Shareholders receive no income, so the case rests on growth in dental technology and the long runway for aligners over braces. Its low DiviScore simply reflects the absence of a payout, typical of a growth-oriented medical-device firm.