Why Sirona Dental Systems Shares Soared

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of dental equipment supplier Sirona Dental Systems (Nasdaq: SIRO  ) rose by as much as 12% today after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and naming a new CEO.

So what: For the quarter, Sirona reported a 13% increase in sales to $247.4 million as orders within the United States and Asia picked up. Excluding one-time charges, EPS rose to $0.71, 4% higher than the year-ago period. Wall Street had been expecting Sirona to report a profit of $0.70 on just $226.6 million in revenue. Sirona's 2013 full-year forecast calls for a 9%-11% increase in sales and EPS of $3.33-$3.43, which are both in line with current expectations. The company also announced that Jeffrey Slovin, the current president, will be promoted to CEO in February when current CEO Jost Fischer retires.

Now what: OK, well I'm all wet. I said going into this week that I was skeptical of Sirona's ability to meet sales targets because of tightening consumer spending, but apparently that turned out to be an overly cautious estimation. With the stock at 18 times forward earnings, I still can't say I'm thrilled with its valuation and think caution should be exercised, but if it can keep up a roughly 10% growth rate for a few more years, then it's quite possible it could head even higher.

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