Cooper [COO] Conference call transcript for 2021 q4
2022-03-03 23:06:02
Fiscal: 2022 q1
Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Cooper Companies First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today’s program is being recorded. And now I’d like to introduce your host for today’s program, Kim Duncan, Vice President, Investor Relations and Risk Management.
Kim Duncan: Good afternoon, and welcome to The Cooper Companies first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. During today’s call, we will discuss the results and guidance included in the earnings release and then use the remaining time for questions. Our presenters on today’s call are Al White, President and Chief Executive Officer and Brian Andrews, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements, including all revenue and earnings per share guidance and other statements regarding anticipated results of operations, market or regulatory conditions and acquisitions, integration of any acquisitions or their anticipated benefits. Forward-looking statements depend on assumptions, data or methods that maybe incorrect or imprecise and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Events that could cause our actual results and future actions of the company to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements are set forth under the caption forward-looking statements in today’s earnings release and are described in our SEC filings, including Cooper’s Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings, all of which are available on our website at coopercos.com. Should you have any additional questions following the call, please call our investor line at 925-460-3663 or e-mail ir@cooperco.com. And now I’ll turn the call over to Al for his opening remarks.
Al White: Great. Thank you, Kim and welcome everyone to Cooper Companies’ fiscal first quarter conference call. Before I turn to our business, let me say the escalation of the devastating crisis in Ukraine is top of mind. The event caused great concern for everyone in that region, including our employees, partners and their families. Our thoughts are with everyone who is being affected, and we certainly hope peace prevails soon. Moving to our business, I am pleased to report a strong start to the fiscal year, led by a fantastic quarter at CooperVision and another solid quarter at CooperSurgical. Within vision, our daily silicone hydrogel and myopia management portfolios continued posting strong results, leading to share gains around the world. Within surgical, our fertility business posted great numbers and the integration of Generate Life Sciences is going really well with that business off to a fast start as part of Cooper. We also recently announced the pending acquisition of Cook Medical’s reproductive health business, which will be a great addition to our surgical franchise. Regarding first quarter financial results, consolidated revenues were $787 million, with CooperVision at $561 million, up 11%; and CooperSurgical reaching a new all-time high of $226 million, up 30%. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.24. Moving to the details and reporting all percentages on an organic basis. Our CooperVision growth of 14% was strong and diversified. We grew nicely in all product categories, spheres, torics and multifocals, and all three regions posted great results, with the Americas up 8%, EMEA up 17% and Asia-Pac up 19%. This resulted in nice share gains, and we remain well positioned to capitalize on the reopening of economies around the world as COVID subsides. All of this is driven by our multifaceted commercial strategy that we began deploying years ago, which has proven to be extremely successful. This includes a consistent cadence of launching new products and product extensions around the world, providing customers with market-leading flexibility through our customized solutions, executing on key account relationships and delivering fantastic customer service. We’re continuing these efforts while also enhancing our business through sales force expansions and targeted marketing and infrastructure investments. Regarding products, our daily silicone hydrogel lenses MyDay and clariti, posted strong results, growing 25%. Daily silicones continue to lead the market, and we offer the broadest portfolio of products to meet customers’ needs. This includes MyDay, our premium offering, which is available in a sphere, toric and, most recently, a multifocal. And speaking of the multifocal, the launch is going incredibly well. The feedback from eye care practitioners regarding use of our breakthrough binocular progressive fitting system that simplifies the fit process while providing optimal visual acuity at all levels has been fantastic. And we’re continuing to receive feedback from patients that MyDay provides the best multifocal they’ve ever worn for exceptional near, intermediate and distant vision. This success is having a nice halo effect on our already successful MyDay torics and spheres, so we remain very optimistic about this brand. The other brand in our daily silicone hydrogel portfolio is clariti. This lens is also available as a sphere, toric and multifocal and is sold as more of a mass market product. We’ve seen nice growth with this brand, especially in our Asia Pac region, where we just posted an extremely strong quarter. For our FRPs, we reported another solid quarter of 10% growth for Avaira and Biofinity, our silicone hydrogel 2-week and monthly lenses. This was led by improved product availability and our unique offerings such as Biofinity toric multifocal and Energys, the most innovative product in the monthly space. To finish on products, we are continuing to see nice strength in torics and multifocals as we expand parameter ranges and increase availability around the world. When you combine this with the success we’re having in key accounts, it’s resulting in nice share gains, and we expect that to continue. Moving to myopia management, we posted revenues of $20 million. And within this, MiSight grew 172%. This growth rate was an acceleration from Q4, which is impressive, given the general market challenges around new fits. Overall, as a global leader in the myopia management space, our portfolio is the broadest in the industry, comprised of MiSight, the only FDA-approved myopia control product; a broad range of market-leading ortho-k lenses; and our innovative SightGlass Vision glasses. For MiSight, we are continuing to make progress around the world, including in China, where we’re preparing for a broader launch with our partner, Essilor. Our team in China is strong, and our advisory board of key opinion leaders that are affiliated with hospitals representing over 50% of myopia management contact lens volume in China has us positioned for success in a market where childhood myopia rates are estimated to be over 80%, and we’re reducing myopia as a priority for the government. Lastly, on MiSight, our industry-leading 7-year clinical data has been getting a lot of exposure as it highlights that MiSight works for nearly all myopic children. It cuts myopia progression by roughly 59% on average. It works at any age a child starts treatment. It works for as long as the child wears it. And there’s no rebound if treatment is stopped. Moving to SightGlass myopia management glasses, following our co-launch in the Netherlands with Essilor in November, we started early launches in additional markets, including the U.K. and Canada. Within Canada, we’ve launched the product under the MiSight name, which is an exciting step in combining our myopia management glasses and contact lenses under one brand name. We have also accelerated activity in China and plan to launch the product later this fiscal year. To conclude on myopia management, our momentum is strong and we are still targeting roughly $100 million in sales for this fiscal year. To wrap up on CooperVision, for calendar Q4, we estimate the global contact lens market grew 10%, with CooperVision growing 16%. Within this, COVID-related challenges did negatively impact optometry offices around the world, and combining this with heightened patient demand as myopia rates continue to rise is resulting in many eye care offices having full calendars of appointments. This demand is great, but it’s still impacting fit activities such as in the U.S. where new fits are still roughly 8% below pre-COVID levels. Having said that, progress is being made, and we expect to continue seeing positive trends as COVID subsides and economies around the world reopen with people returning to the office and becoming more active in social settings. Meanwhile, long-term macro growth trends remain intact with roughly one-third of the world being myopic today and that’s expected to increase to 50% by 2050. For CooperVision, we have a robust product portfolio, ongoing product launches, a fast growing myopia management business and our fit data remains strong. So we remain very bullish on our business. Moving to CooperSurgical, we are extremely busy integrating Generate, which we just closed in mid-December. In the meantime, we had another strong quarter with organic growth of 9%. Before getting into the details, let’s cover Generate. We recognized roughly $34 million of revenues in the quarter as this was a stub period with only roughly 1.5 months of revenue. Of this, $23 million was in stem cell storage and $11 million in fertility. It’s tough to get exact growth rates for a stub period, but growth for the business for the full equivalent fiscal quarter was 10%. Moving to our fertility business, we posted sales of $97 million, up a very healthy 27% when excluding Generate and the small acquisition of Embryo Options from last January. Strength was seen on a global basis and throughout our product portfolio, including from consumables, capital equipment and genomics. Within our office and surgical unit, we posted sales of $129 million, up 24% as reported, but down 3% when excluding Generate and other acquisitions. This was due to the negative impact of COVID on sales of PARAGARD as well as certain surgical products. Having said that, we did see growth in many areas such as our laparoscopic surgery closure products, and our acquired businesses grew nicely, especially Fetal Pillow in our labor and delivery area, which grew 160%. Based on current trends, we expect office and surgical sales to improve and show organic growth in Q2. To wrap up on CooperSurgical, let me touch on some market information. For fertility, we’re largely back to pre-COVID levels. Some markets like the U.S. are stronger, while others outside the U.S. are still dealing with COVID-related challenges. But net-net, the market is in a good place. This industry continues to grow nicely, and we estimate our addressable market is approaching $2 billion with 5% to 10% long-term annual growth. It’s estimated that 1 in 8 couples has trouble getting pregnant due to a variety of factors such as increasing maternal age and that more than 100 million individuals worldwide suffer from infertility. Given the improving access to treatments, increasing patient awareness, greater comfort discussing IVF and increasing global disposable income, we expect this industry to grow nicely for many years to come. Within office and surgical, as mentioned earlier, we expect growth to return in Q2 as the market fundamentals are improving. To summarize, this was a really strong start to our fiscal year. CooperVision posted a great quarter, and we’re well positioned to continue delivering success with the best team in the industry and the broadest product portfolio in the market. Our fertility business is growing nicely and taking share, and the Generate business is integrating really well with some exciting potential as we incorporate stem cell storage into our labor and delivery product portfolio. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Brian.
Brian Andrews: Thank you, Al, and good afternoon, everyone. Most of my commentary will be on a non-GAAP basis. So please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results. First quarter consolidated revenues were $787 million, up 16% and up 13% organically. Consolidated gross margin decreased year-over-year by 90 basis points to 66.9%, driven primarily by currency, but also lower sales of PARAGARD, partially offset by lower manufacturing costs at CooperVision. Operating expenses grew 19% to 42.3% of revenues with the addition of Generate and higher investment activity. Consolidated operating margins were 24.6%, down from 26.9% last year due to the negative impact of FX and higher investing. In addition, we did see higher freight, secondary handling and distribution costs within cost of goods and OpEx and expect this to continue, although price increases are helping to offset the impact. Interest expense was $6.6 million on higher average debt, partially offset by lower interest rates. The effective tax rate was 13.3%, higher primarily due to the Generate acquisition. Non-GAAP EPS was $3.24 with roughly 49.9 million average shares outstanding. FX negatively impacted us by $0.37 in the quarter, which was $0.02 worse than we forecasted at the time of our last earnings call. Free cash flow was solid at $109 million, comprised of $166 million of operating cash flow, offset by $57 million of CapEx. Net debt decreased by $1.6 billion to $3 billion, driven by the acquisition of Generate. And our adjusted leverage ratio increased to 2.71x. During the quarter, we repurchased roughly 191,200 shares of the company’s common stock for $78.5 million at an average purchase price of $410.41 per share, that’s $410.41. Roughly $256 million remains authorized for repurchase under our program. Moving to guidance. We’ve updated our numbers to reflect our outperformance in Q1, the addition of Generate, new currency rates and the assumption of a 25 basis point rate increase by the Fed next week. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this would have meant the midpoint for EPS would have been roughly $14.35, but currency has moved significantly against us over the past week. We’re increasing prices to offset the negative impact, and hopefully, the currency moves are temporary, but we’re taking a conservative approach and fully incorporating negative currency into our guidance, noting that the scope, degree and duration of the crisis on the global economy is an evolving risk. With this, the new consolidated revenue range is $3.261 billion to $3.329 billion, up 6.5% to 8.5% organically. Within this, CooperVision revenue guidance is $2.221 billion to $2.264 billion, up 7% to 9% organically. CooperSurgical revenues are expected to be between $1.04 billion and $1.065 billion, up 35% to 38% as reported or 5% to 7% organically. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be in the range of $13.70 to $14.20. We estimate interest expense around $42 million, which assumes a 25 basis point rate increase, remembering that $1 billion of our debt is fixed – is at fixed rates. We estimate the full year tax rate to be around 14%. Regarding currency, on a year-over-year basis, the negative FX headwind is now roughly 3.5% to revenues and roughly 10% negative impact to EPS. Note this guidance does not include our pending Cook Medical reproductive health acquisition as the transaction has not yet closed. Regarding Cook, we announced this acquisition on February 7 for $875 million. This is a really nice strategic fit as they manufacture and sell minimally invasive medical devices focused on their fertility and gynecology markets. With this acquisition, we will be improving our international fertility footprint, especially within the Asia Pac region and will be adding highly synergistic and respected labor and delivery medical devices. From a financial perspective, this business had roughly $158 million in sales in calendar 2021, and we expect long-term growth in the range of 5% to 9%. Additionally, we expect year 1 non-GAAP EPS accretion of roughly $0.60. For more information, please visit our IR website, where there is a presentation. In summary, we’re pleased with this quarter’s performance and believe our momentum will continue, driven by strategic investments in both businesses that will support share gains and durable long-term revenue and earnings growth. And with that, I’ll hand it back to the operator for questions.
Operator: Certainly. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Mishan from KeyBanc. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Larry Biegelsen from Wells Fargo. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Johnson from Baird. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pasquale from Guggenheim. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jon Block from Stifel. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Bednar from Piper Sandler. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Brackmann from William Blair. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Weiner from Jefferies. Your question please.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Marcus from JPMorgan. Your question please.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] And this does conclude the question-and-answer session of today’s program. I would like to hand the program back to Al White, President and Chief Executive Officer, for any further remarks.
Al White: Great. Thank you, everyone. I appreciate everyone’s attention and for calling in. I know a lot of people have a lot of things going on right now. As we have discussed, we started the year up really well here. So, we are really excited about where vision sits today and where surgical sits. And we have got good momentum. We think that’s going to continue. So, if anyone has any questions or follow-ups, certainly give us a call. Otherwise, we look forward to speaking with everyone on our next earnings call in early June. Thank you, operator.
Operator: Thank you. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.
