Cooper Companies Q1 2023 Earnings Report

Cooper Companies EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.73
• Consensus EPS: $0.67
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.06
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.81

Cooper Companies Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $858.50 million
• Expected Revenue: $834.90 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$23.60 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +9.10%

Cooper Companies Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2023
• Date: 3/2/2023
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, March 2, 2023
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

Cooper Companies (NASDAQ:COO), Inc. is a global medical device company headquartered in San Ramon, California. Founded in 1958, the company develops, manufactures and markets products through two primary business segments: CooperVision and CooperSurgical.

CooperVision specializes in contact lenses, including daily disposable, toric, multifocal, multifocal toric, specialty and myopia-management lenses. Its products are designed to address a range of vision-correction needs, including astigmatism, presbyopia and irregular corneas. CooperVision sells its products through eye-care professionals and distributors in markets around the world.

CooperSurgical provides medical devices, instruments and diagnostic products for women’s health and fertility care. Its offerings support areas such as in vitro fertilization, reproductive health, contraception, gynecological procedures and in-office surgical care. The company serves healthcare providers, hospitals, fertility clinics and laboratories internationally.

Cooper Companies Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Record Q1 revenues of $858 million were achieved, up 10% organically, with non-GAAP EPS of $2.90 despite a $0.30 year-over-year FX headwind.
• CooperVision posted all-time quarterly sales of $581 million (+10% organic), driven by 17% growth in daily silicone hydrogel lenses and 32% growth in myopia management product MiSight.
• CooperSurgical generated $277 million in Q1 revenues (+10% organic), marking its ninth straight quarter of double-digit fertility growth, 10% growth in OBGYN devices, and an 11% lift in Paragard from pricing.
• Raised 2023 guidance to $3.50 billion–$3.55 billion in revenues (+7–9% organic) and $12.60–$12.90 in non-GAAP EPS, reflecting the Q1 beat, operational efficiency gains, and modestly improved FX.
• Ongoing investments include global capacity expansions, consolidation of specialty lens operations for efficiency, and plastic-neutral sustainability efforts that have prevented the equivalent of 100 million bottles from entering oceans.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Q1 2023 CooperCompanies earnings conference call. I would now like to turn the call over to Kim Duncan, VP, Investor Relations and Risk Management. Please go ahead.

[Kim Duncan, VP of Investor Relations and Risk Management at CooperCompanies]

Good afternoon, and welcome to CooperCompanies' first quarter 2023 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 or trends, product launches, operational initiatives, regulatory submissions, and closing or integration of any acquisitions or their anticipated benefits. Forward-looking statements depend on assumptions, data, or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise and are subject to risks and uncertainties.

[Kim Duncan, VP of Investor Relations and Risk Management at CooperCompanies]

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. Also, as a reminder, the non-GAAP financial information we will provide on this call is provided as a supplement to our GAAP information. We encourage you to consider our results under GAAP as well as non-GAAP and refer to the reconciliations provided in our earnings release, which is available on the investor relations section of our website under quarterly results. Should you have any additional questions following the call, please email ir@cooperco.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Al for his opening remarks.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Thank you, Kim, and welcome everyone to CooperCompanies' first quarter fiscal 2023 conference call. We started this year on a positive note with strong operational performances at both CooperVision and CooperSurgical. For CooperVision, we reported record quarterly revenues in our eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit organic revenue growth. For CooperSurgical, we posted strong results, including fertility, reporting its ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit organic revenue growth. Earnings exceeded expectations driven by the strength in revenues and investment activities yielding operational efficiencies faster than expected. This is exactly how we wanted to start the year, and we'll continue balancing investment activity with prudent operational management to deliver solid results. Moving to the numbers, consolidated quarterly revenue reached an all-time high of $858 million.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

CooperVision posted record quarterly revenues of $581 million, up 10% organically, and CooperSurgical posted revenues of $277 million, up 10% organically. CooperVision's growth was led by our daily silicone hydrogel portfolio and myopia management products, and CooperSurgical's growth was broad-based with strength in many areas. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $2.90. For CooperVision in Q1, in reporting all percentages on an organic basis, revenue growth was strong and diversified. The Americas grew 9%, EMEA grew 12%, and Asia-Pac grew 10%. This performance was driven by new product launches, expanded product ranges, market-leading flexibility through our customized offerings, and growth in key accounts. Regarding product details, daily silicone hydrogel lenses grew 17% with especially strong growth from MyDay.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Daily silicone hydrogel lenses continue to be the main driver of growth for the contact lens industry. We offer the broadest portfolio with MyDay and clariti available in a wide range of spheres, torics, and multifocals. Our silicone hydrogel monthly and two-week lenses, Biofinity and Avaira Vitality, reported another solid quarter of 9% growth. Turning to product news, we remain extremely busy. Our MyDay multifocal rollout is going incredibly well. We expect strong growth to continue as the product becomes more readily available in EMEA and Asia-Pac. Feedback from customers and practitioners remains outstanding. We continue taking share. Our MyDay toric parameter expansion rollout in the U.S. and Canada is also going well. We'll be launching the expanded range in EMEA this quarter.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

With over 4,000 SKU, our MyDay toric has the widest daily toric range in the market by a wide margin, and it's opening the door to many 2-week and monthly toric wearers to enjoy the freedom of wearing a daily contact lens for the first time ever. All this activity is having a positive halo impact on the MyDay sphere, which is also performing well. Lastly, on our MyDay franchise, I'm excited to announce we started the national rollout of MyDay energys in the U.S. This premium lens uses the same innovative DigitalBoost technology as Biofinity energys to alleviate the impacts of digital eye strain. Studies show that adults are now spending more than 7 hours a day on screens, resulting in eyes feeling strained and uncomfortable.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Energys, with its boost technology, is the perfect solution to address this digital eye fatigue, and our survey work clearly shows that practitioners and customers are excited to get this technology in a daily offering. All this MyDay activity is exciting, and we remain dedicated to developing and rolling out technologically superior MyDay products for many years to come. Lastly, within the daily segment, clariti is performing well. Its mass market price point is allowing eye care practitioners to continue utilizing the clariti franchise as a great way to bring wearers into the daily silicone hydrogel space. Moving outside of dailies, demand for Biofinity remains strong, led by our torics, multifocal, and extended range offerings.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

We continue to be capacity constrained in some of these areas, especially around our extremely high demand made to order products, such as extended range torics and toric multifocals, the continued ramp-up of our manufacturing facilities is allowing us to address the significant demand. Lastly, we had a nice quarter with Avaira Vitality, especially in Asia Pac. Moving to myopia management. We posted revenues of $25 million, up 32%, with MiSight up 50%. This was in line with expectations and keeps us on track to reach our goal of $120 million-$130 million in sales this year. Regarding MiSight, we're expanding availability in numerous key accounts, actively launching our expanded parameter range, and making great progress on numerous R&D efforts.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

We're seeing increased fitting activity as optical offices become more comfortable with their myopia control practice management, and we're continuing to see a positive halo effect with our MiSight customers accelerating their use of other CooperVision lenses. MiSight is the first and only FDA-approved contact lens for myopia control, and the product is backed by extensive clinical data. This is a critical differentiator as the proactive management of myopia becomes standard of care within the eye care community to help reduce the risk of long-time eye health problems associated with myopia, such as cataracts, retinal detachment, and macular degeneration. I wanna mention the great work the CooperVision team has done in our environmental sustainability efforts. In January, we announced that our Net Plastic Neutrality initiative reached a major milestone with the prevention of the equivalent of more than 100 million plastic bottles from entering the oceans.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

This program has been incredibly well-received by contact lens wearers and eye care professionals. We're extremely proud of its success. To finish on CooperVision, the contact lens market grew roughly 9% in calendar 2022, with CooperVision growing faster at 11%. We expect 2023 to be another robust year, supported by the macro growth trend of more people needing vision correction. It's estimated that 50% of the global population will have myopia or nearsightedness by the year 2050, up from roughly 34% today.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

This is driven by a variety of factors, including greater screen time, and when combined with the ongoing shift to silicone hydrogel dailies, the increasing focus on higher value products such as torics and multifocals and higher pricing, we expect many years of strong growth for the industry, and we expect to remain a leader with our robust product portfolio, ongoing product launches, fast-growing myopia management business, and leading new fit data. Moving to CooperSurgical, this was an excellent start to the fiscal year. Our fertility business posted sales of $112 million, up 10% organically for its ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit organic growth. Success was broad-based, with strong results throughout the product portfolio and around the world. The global fertility market remains a very exciting space, with strong macro trends supporting significant long-term growth potential.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

There are multiple drivers in this industry, beginning with women delaying childbirth. The average age of a woman's first birth in the U.S. and within several other developed countries now stands at a record 30 years old, and age is a key factor in contributing to the need for fertility assistance. Other growth drivers include improving access to treatment, increasing patient awareness, improved product offerings, increasing fertility benefit coverage, and technology improvements for both male and female infertility challenges. It's estimated that roughly 15% of reproductive age couples have fertility challenges, and that over 750,000 babies are born annually through fertility assisted measures, and these numbers are growing. Within the broader fertility space, we compete in a market that's roughly $2 billion in annual sales, and we forecast growth of 5%-10% for many years to come.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Our positioning is excellent, with the broadest portfolio in the industry, a solid commercial footprint, and strength in key accounts. We're also investing in our team and in our product portfolio, which includes consumables, capital equipment, and reproductive genetic testing, and we're expanding geographically. Demand remains very strong, especially within our key accounts. We need to keep building infrastructure by investing in our people and delivering the products and services required in this high-growth market. Moving to office and surgical products, which includes OBGYN medical devices, Paragard, and stem cell storage, we posted sales of $165 million, up 10% organically. Within this, OBGYN medical devices grew 10%, with strength seen in several of our core products. This team is doing a great job managing strong demand with ongoing supply chain challenges. I'm proud of the hard work and success we're having.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Paragard grew 11%, driven by buy-in activity from a price increase of roughly 8% implemented at the end of the quarter. We'll see a natural offset to this in Q2, but it's nice to get the year off to a good start. Lastly, our stem cell storage business grew 5% organically. We've owned this business for just over a year now, and I'm happy to report that we're seeing improving traction. The synergies we expected as part of the transaction are occurring, and the business is in a good position. As part of our focus in this space and ongoing investment activity, I'm happy to report we recently kicked off an exciting marketing campaign with Chrissy Teigen leading our latest educational efforts around the importance of preserving newborn stem cells.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

The early reaction to this social media campaign has been very positive, and I'm excited to see how it progresses and delivers value through the year. To conclude on CooperSurgical, I wanna mention something that I'm really proud of. Worldwide, every minute a baby is now born using CooperSurgical products. I just love that, and it truly shows what a fantastic and meaningful business CooperSurgical is. To summarize, let me again say this is exactly how we wanted to start this fiscal year. Our operational performance was excellent. Our momentum is strong, and we're executing on our investments to drive long-term sustainable growth. With that, let me turn the call over to Brian.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Thank you, Al. 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 $858 million, up 9% as reported, or up 10% organically. Consolidated gross margin was 65.7%, down 1.2% from last year, primarily due to currency and product mix. Operating expenses grew 11% to 43.1% of revenues, consolidated operating margin was 22.6%, down from 24.6% last year, primarily due to currency.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

To add some color, I'm happy to report that many of the freight and distribution challenges that we experienced in Q4 that continued into Q1 have now been resolved, and these financial results exceeded our expectations due to the strength at the end of the quarter. Below operating income, interest expense was $26 million, and our effective tax rate was 14.4%. Non-GAAP EPS was $2.90, with roughly 49.7 million average shares outstanding. FX negatively impacted earnings by roughly $0.30 year-over-year, which is $0.05 better than we were forecasting when we provided guidance in December. Free cash flow was $84 million, including CapEx of $83 million. CapEx continues to be heavily driven by capacity expansion, and we expect that to continue. Net debt decreased by $48 million to $2.56 billion.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Turning to fiscal 2023 guidance, we're increasing expectations for revenues and earnings by incorporating our Q1 beat, improved operational performance, and slightly better FX rates. This results in consolidated revenues of $3.5 billion-$3.55 billion, up 7%-9% organically, with CooperVision revenues of $2.35 billion-$2.39 billion, up 8%-9% organically, and CooperSurgical revenues of $1.14 billion-$1.17 billion, up 5%-7% organically. non-GAAP EPS is expected to be in a range of $12.60-$12.90. Within this, interest expense is expected to be slightly higher at around $110 million, but our effective tax rate is forecasted to be around 14.5% offsetting this.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

For interest expense, we're assuming three future Fed moves: a 25 basis point rate increase this month, another 25 basis point increase in May, and then an additional 25 basis point increase in June. For currency using updated rates, we are now expecting a slightly more positive impact to the P&L, which we're fully passing along. From an operational perspective, we're raising expectations tied to actions we've taken to drive efficiencies. To summarize this, we're raising the midpoint of our earnings guidance by $0.30, with $0.20 coming from our Q1 beat, $0.05 coming from operational improvements that we're expecting in Q2-Q4, and $0.05 from better FX in Q2-Q4. The increase in our revenue guidance is similar, incorporating the Q1 beat, stronger expected performance in Q2 to Q4, and better FX.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Regarding the operational improvements, in addition to addressing the supply chain challenges from Q4, we've taken further steps to improve our operational efficiencies. One such example would be the consolidation of our specialty lens business into our core lens franchise. Over the past several years, CooperVision has created the world's most comprehensive specialty contact lens portfolio, comprised of products such as leading ortho-k and scleral lenses to treat myopia and more severe cases of irregular cornea. This part of our business has grown nicely. It's now time to consolidate it into our core operations and leverage our infrastructure. In the meantime, we're continuing to invest in our product launches, manufacturing footprint, and distribution capabilities to support our long-term growth objectives. Demand is strong and long-term growth trends are very positive. We're investing prudently but accordingly. There are a lot of positives to take away from this activity.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Our capabilities are expanding, our operations are becoming more efficient, and the numbers are looking better. That being said, we remain cautious regarding recession risk and continued inefficiencies tied to supply chain challenges and have incorporated that into our expectations. To conclude on guidance, note that it does not include the pending acquisition of Cook Medical's reproductive health business. We're exploring all options related to this transaction in order to obtain regulatory approval, including the potential sale of certain Cook assets.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

We expect the transaction to be resolved by August of this year. With that, I will hand it back to the operator for questions.

[Operator]

The floor is now open for your questions. To ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If at any point you'd like to withdraw from the queue, please press star one again. You will be provided the opportunity to ask one question and one further follow-up question. We'll take a moment to render our roster. Our first question comes from the line of Jon Block from Stifel. Please proceed.

[Jon Block, Managing Director at Stifel]

Hey, guys. Thanks, good afternoon. Brian, maybe I'll just start with some clarifying questions. The update from FX, I think previously it was a 2.5% drag to revs and net neutral for EPS. That was prior quarter. How has that changed? Is there a new FX number on revenues, you know, from the 2.5% drag? The impact to EPS, I wanna make sure I heard you right, is that improved by $0.10, $0.05 is embedded in the 1Q outperformance, and then $0.05 is sort of the balance of fiscal 2Q-4Q? Maybe if you can just clear that up a little bit.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Sure, sure. Hi, Jon. Yeah. You're right. On the prior guidance, we had a 2.5% headwind to revenues. It's a little bit better. I'd say you're just on the margin. It still kind of rounds to 2.5. It's a stronger 2.5, I'd say, for revenues, but still a headwind. On to EPS, where we were saying neutral to EPS before from FX for the year were about 1%. When it comes to the updated guidance, just to recap, you know, we beat Q1 by $0.20. $0.05 is from FX, the other $0.15 operational.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

The rest of the year, Q2 through Q4, we're raising by $0.10, half of which coming from FX, that's the $0.05, the other half from operational performance.

[Jon Block, Managing Director at Stifel]

Yep. Okay. Perfect. I think I got you, and that certainly helps. Maybe Al, just for the second question, I'll just ask, you know, big picture. There, there's certainly been a lot of chatter about supply concerns within the contact lens industry. You know, you guys certainly seem to be faring okay. Maybe just talk about where you guys sit. I know you mentioned a little bit around some of your product lines, but broadly speaking, where you guys sit and, you know, your confidence or comfort level that you're broadly gonna be able to stay ahead of the demand curve, especially with, you know, hitting the gas and getting the MyDay energys launched off the ground. Thanks, guys.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Sure. Yes. I mean, there are still supply chain challenges in the market, if you will. We still see those also, and some of our competitors have talked about that and have had some challenges. I feel pretty good about where we're at. As I mentioned, we do have some capacity constraints, if you will, within Biofinity and a couple other spots that we're working pretty aggressively at right now to resolve. At a high level, I feel pretty good about where we're at. We're in a good spot with MyDay. We've got the Energys rolling out right now. We're in a good position with that from a production perspective and distribution perspective. We're in a good spot with clariti. We're in a good spot with Biofinity. We're in a good spot with Avaira Vitality.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Pockets of challenges, but for us, at least from a supply chain perspective, we're definitely getting in a better position.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Larry Biegelsen from Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

[Larry Biegelsen, Senior Medical Device Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Congrats on a really nice quarter here, guys.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Thanks.

[Larry Biegelsen, Senior Medical Device Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

I wanted to start, Al, on the contact lens market, and then I had one margin question for Brian. Al, the guidance implies, you know, roughly 8% organic growth the rest of the year. Alcon called out some softness in the contact lens market on their call this week. What, what are you assuming for the contact lens market for 2023? Have you seen any changes in consumer behavior, and how does your private label business, you know, help insulate you?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. We've had a good start to the year. We had a good January. February was definitely a good month. We're seeing positive momentum. I'm speaking for Cooper. I think we're in a good place from that perspective, and you see that build into our guidance. If I think about the market a little bit more broadly, I would say, we're taking share, similar to what we've taken historically. Not a massive amount of share, but, you know, 1 point-2 points, something like that over what the market's growing, kinda similar to last year. I think the market's gonna have another good year, frankly.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

At this point in time, the way the year's starting off and the visibility we have, I think the overall contact lens market's gonna be certainly mid-single digits and probably on the higher end of the mid-single digits. When you look at our portfolio, we have the broadest portfolio in the market. We also manage a lot of customer brands, and that definitely helps.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

When you look at retailers right now and some of our bigger accounts who are looking at their own profitability and managing their own supply chain issues and so forth, one of the areas that they'll have a tendency to turn around and focus on is their own store brands. Those are products that we have a tendency to support to them, and we take a lot of pride in that, and we work very closely with our key accounts and have strong relationships with them to continue to supply their customer brands. I think that does help us, and I think it'll help us as we move through this year. We have not really seen much in terms of any wearing habit changes in terms of, you know, a trade-down or anything along those lines.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

We're still seeing success driven heavily by products like MyDay, frankly, within our franchise. We are having success with clariti. That's more of a mass-market price point. I think that if you do see any moves, associated with consumers being a little bit more concerned about the cost of things, then we have a great option in clariti, and I think we'll continue to do well with that. Yeah. Net-net, at the end of the day, I'd say, I'm envisioning a strong market this year and us taking a little bit of share of it.

[Larry Biegelsen, Senior Medical Device Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

That's super helpful, and thanks for the comprehensive answer. Brian, on the margins, you know, they peaked the operating margin, you know, in 2019, let's call it 27.6%. The past 2 quarters have been kind of in the low- to mid-22% range. Can you help us understand, you know, the decline, the bridge, the decline, you know, call it 500 basis points? What's the path back to 27.6%? You know, embedded is in 2023, is the margin, operating margin, embedded in the guidance about 24%. Thanks for taking the questions.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. Hi, Larry. Good question. Yes, since 2019, FX has had obviously a fairly decent headwind to us, that's been about 1.5%. The other sort of 2% I would kind of bucketize into three parts, kind of one-third each. You know, one of them is just equity. That's share-based comp. We moved a few couple years ago from 5 years to 4 years vesting, that's created a headwind for us. That's about a third of the delta. Supply chain and distribution, no surprise. You know, we've got about a third tied to that's just all the things we've been talking about recently here.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Of course, the infrastructure investments that we've been putting into our business, and I kind of focus, you know, largely on IT. That includes the automation work that we're doing, but also just ERP and other sort of, you know, IT upgrades we've been making over the years. I'd say that, you know, we're eventually going to hurdle those, the equity piece and we'll continue to grow into our infrastructure. You know, your operating margin comment for the year, is directionally, you know, is in the neighborhood of where we think we're gonna land.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

I would say that all of the moves that we're making from an efficiency effort, the cost containment exercises, and one example I gave in my prepared remarks is just one of the many. We're gonna continue to go after, you know, some structural changes to centralize and automate and leverage our infrastructure. I expect that we'll continue to get leverage as we look forward. The one thing I'd also say is just, you know, from an operating income perspective, the midpoint of our guidance is taken up by 1% on a constant currency basis. You would expect this year we're already getting leverage. We're gonna get around 10.5% constant currency OI growth at the midpoint of our guidance.

[Larry Biegelsen, Senior Medical Device Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Johnson from Baird. Please proceed.

[Jeff Johnson, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. Al, maybe starting on the contact lens business, just, you know, what do you see from a pricing standpoint this quarter? Do you still feel like this year could be a little bit better pricing environment for you specifically, given, some of those larger retail contracts? Should we expect MyDay energys to come out at a price premium? You know, I know Biofinity Energys kind of was back and forth, whether it was a premium or just a premium value, you know, the wearer got value out of it at the same price. What are you planning on MyDay energys? Thanks.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

MyDay Energys will be a price premium to the MyDay Sphere. I'm not sure exactly where the number will settle out, but it'll be somewhere around a 20% price premium to the regular MyDay lens. On pricing in general, yes, I think that this will be a decent year from a pricing perspective for us, 2%+ pricing we'll get this year. As an industry, you're seeing positive pricing, and it's probably in that, you know, 2%+ range, same thing. I'm talking about net pricing, right? A lot of people are putting price increases through, you'll run programs kind of behind the scene, rebate programs or whatever else, right? Net pricing, looking at that 2%-3% range.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

It's a pretty good market from that perspective.

[Jeff Johnson, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Yeah. No, that's helpful. Then I think one of the numbers that stood out the most to me was that 9% constant currency in your Shanghai fertility business. You know, I know there's different data sources out there. One of your competitors talked about that FRP market being flat in the fourth quarter. I don't know if you agree with that, to beat the market by 9 points, you know, does that speak to some of the private label benefits that Larry was asking about? How else to think about kind of that outperformance?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah, I don't believe the market was flat, but the market was up, was not up a lot. We are definitely taking share and growing when you look at that space. A big part of that ends up just being the magnitude of our product offering, right? Because, I mean, you have a really good product in Biofinity and a really good product in Avaira Vitality. You're getting an add-on in growth from a product like Biofinity from things like the extended range sphere and the extended range torics that we have, the multifocal toric that's out in the marketplace. A lot of that kind of stuff is driving pretty nice growth.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

I think when you put it all together, that entire franchise together, and you put it under some of these retailers store brands that are out there that now they're probably focusing a little bit more on, and will frankly probably continue to focus a little bit more on, that's gonna be beneficial for us. That monthly price point is a really good price point for a lot of contact lens wearers. If you believe the economy is gonna move in that direction, then the likelihood is you're gonna see things continue to move more towards store brands and probably not surprisingly, a little bit more towards a product like a monthly, Biofinity is just perfectly placed for that.

[Jeff Johnson, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Petrone from Mizuho Securities. Please proceed.

[Brad Bowers, VP of Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Great. Thanks. You know, I appreciate taking the call here. This is Brad Bowers on for Anthony. Just wanted to kind of hear about, you know, progress on MiSight. You know, it sounded like the myopia management business was strong in the quarter. Just wanted to kind of see where you're, where you're seeing the growth and kind of where you're on track, where you're on track there.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Sure. Yeah, myopia management was, I would say was solid this quarter. The reason I wouldn't say it was strong, so to speak, really is China. That's where we ran into difficulty. If you're outside of China, whether it's MiSight or whether it's ortho-k products, we had a really good quarter. We've got good momentum. We're expanding those offerings. We're seeing MiSight in more big retailers and more big key accounts as they're rolling it out and getting more active on their myopia control practices. Things are going fairly well with respect to MiSight. I would say the one clear negative within that space and the challenge that we had this quarter, frankly, was in China, that market just has not returned.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

if it does start to return, we'll see some upside from that. We don't have a lot built into our expectations around that. but hopefully we see that.

[Brad Bowers, VP of Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Got it. That's helpful. Just a little switching gears a little bit on this one. You know, I do understand that there is probably not much that you can say on that, but just wanted to hear if there was any contemplation of additional strategic options to kind of get the Cook Medical deal across the goal line or just any real update that you could provide on that. I appreciate the question.

[Brad Bowers, VP of Equity Research at Mizuho Securities]

Yeah, Brad, unfortunately, there's not really much I can add other than just kind of repeating what we said, which, is we're working through that process right now. There's a lot of regulatory implications there. We're evaluating our different alternatives, kind of have everything on the table to see if we can figure something out. As I mentioned, we'll have resolution to that, no later than August of this year.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Bednar from Piper Sandler. Please proceed.

[Jason Bednar, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions, and I'll echo the congrats here on a real nice start to fiscal 2023. Wanted to maybe start in the Americas. You know, that 9% growth, I think it's some of the best growth we've seen from the region in several years, really outside of the COVID period when comps were really easy. Can you talk about the dynamics there? You know, help us understand how much, you know, this America strength is a function of whether it's new products or, you know, if the price there is any different from the 2-3 points you're talking about there, Al, or just if volume is really just kicking it.

[Jason Bednar, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

You know, maybe to follow up on some prior questions, you know, wanna clarify that you haven't really seen any trade down, or softening in the consumer, at least within your portfolio, but your guidance still embeds some cautiousness around the economy. Just wanna make sure I have that all correct.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah, let me hit that second one. No, we have not really seen anything with respect to a trade down or softness in the contact lens marketplace at this point in time. As a matter of fact, we're continuing to hear from some of the big retailers and buying groups out there, including in the U.S. and around the world, challenges they're having with respect to staffing, and whether that's staffing as office workers or even optometrists, finding optometrists and getting optometrists to work enough hours. No, we're in a good spot from that. We haven't seen that activity per what Brian said. Yeah, we are trying to incorporate some of that just to be a little conservative within our guidance. I think that makes sense. On the Americas, yeah, we had a good quarter.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Alex is running that business for us now. He's doing a really nice job. We've just got some great people on our America sales team that are executing really well. We were kind of growing in line with market there for a while. Maybe we're kind of shaking that loose a little bit now and starting to get rolling, getting MyDay energys into the market is gonna be another step forward. It's only one quarter. I don't wanna attach too much to it, but certainly you can't have a second good quarter without a first one. A step in the right direction.

[Jason Bednar, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

No. Well, well said. Appreciate that. Maybe just another maybe follow-up or clarifying point from some earlier questions. you know, Al, I don't think you typically bifurcate the growth that you see in different channels, but can you talk about, you know, directionally, you know, how much stronger your private label business is relative to sales that are going into private practices? You know, is the delta between those groups, you know, 1-2 points, 3-4 points? How should we think about that?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Actually they're probably pretty even right now. We did see a little bit more strength in our branded products for several quarters there last year. A lot of that tied to MyDay and a lot of success we were seeing in MyDay. Right now from the numbers, there's not a big difference. We're getting kind of similar growth, if you will, from our what I have a tendency to call customized solutions, right? All the customer brands and so forth that are out there, and the direct sales, if you will, to optometrists' offices and so forth. At this point in time, I wouldn't highlight really a swing in any direction from that.

[Jason Bednar, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler]

All right. Thank you.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yep.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Mishan from KeyBanc. Please proceed.

[Matthew Mishan, Director and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc]

Hey, good afternoon, and thank you for taking the questions. I guess this is for Brian. Can you elaborate further on kind of operational efficiency, kind of where that's coming from? Is that more of a gross margin type driver for you? Kind of how should we think about gross margin year-over-year now?

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Yeah, I mean, we're going after several different cost containment initiatives. I mentioned in my prepared remarks the consolidation of our specialty eye care division into our core. Long term, that'll be a gross margin benefit, but for the short term, that's gonna be more OpEx benefit. You know, we've gone after some other centralization activities, including consolidating our high-growth kind of a sub-region within Eastern Europe and Middle East Africa into our European region. That'll drive some better efficiencies. You know, I would say it's probably more of an OpEx play than anything else.

[Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer at CooperCompanies]

Within gross margin, you know, our guidance still implied in our guidance is gross margins up year-over-year, a little bit more from currency than on a constant currency basis.

[Matthew Mishan, Director and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc]

Okay. That's fair. For Al, I think one of the things we've heard is that some of your competitors did pull back on some of the extended parameters or extended ranges. You know, that may then not be kind of higher volume, but, you know, could add up for you. I guess, is that enough to help you kind of drive some share, or is that just something that just adds, like, increased relevance for Cooper with ECP?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

I think that that does drive share gains for us, and I think longer term, it'll drive share gains for us. Yeah, some of our competitors have pulled back on some, like the extended range or... I shouldn't even call it extended range. In our world, they would kind of be more regular torque ranges that are out there. Some of the broader torque ranges. We haven't really seen much impact from that yet because a lot of that activity is fairly new in the marketplace. I do think one of the differentiators for us, and one of the reasons we take share and have taken share consistently for a long time, is the breadth of our product portfolio. It's very difficult to manage those wide parameter ranges. I mean, it just is.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

From a production perspective all the way through distribution and all your packaging and labeling and inventory management and so forth, as you can imagine, when you get those really wide SKU ranges, it just creates a much more complex environment. We're pretty good at that. We've invested a lot of money at that over the years. As I said, that's a differentiator for us, and I think it'll continue to put us in a position to help us gain a little bit of share. Like you said, I wouldn't overdo that because the dollar amounts aren't that big. anytime you can get something to differentiate you in a positive way, that's a good thing. I would say that's one of those things.

[Matthew Mishan, Director and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc]

All right. Thank you.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yep.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Robbie Marcus from JPMorgan. Please proceed.

[Robbie Marcus, Senior Analyst at JPMorgan]

Oh, great. Nice quarter, and, thanks for taking the questions.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Thanks.

[Robbie Marcus, Senior Analyst at JPMorgan]

Maybe to start, are you able to quantify, if at all, any of the share you think you gained as competitors seem to have had more supply chain issues than you did around the world and the impact to the different product lines?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

I don't think, frankly, very much. Some of the issues that competitors have had around supply chain are relatively recent. We've had some of our own challenges around supply chain. I don't wanna act like we haven't. Frankly, I don't think there's very much that's come from supply chain challenges. They haven't been significant or long enough to really start moving market share at this point in time. If they hold and they continue to be a challenge, I do think that could provide positive upside to us. I wouldn't put much on it for the results that we're reporting right now.

[Robbie Marcus, Senior Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. Okay, great. Maybe, I know you're not assuming that the Cook deal closes in guidance, but, you know, hopefully we'll know by later in the year. Do you have any thoughts on where it might be either accretive or dilutive at this point if it goes through as is and, you know, what it might look like if you have to divest any of the assets? Do you think it would still be accretive?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

I mean, as you can imagine, right, highly dependent upon what we have to sell off and what price we would get for what we have to sell off. At this point in time, I just can't answer that question. If I could, I would. At this point, I just can't give you color on that one.

[Robbie Marcus, Senior Analyst at JPMorgan]

Okay. Do you think you'd still do the deal if it's gonna be dilutive at this point?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Well, you know what? I'll refrain from answering that one. I mean, I'm a believer in accretive transactions. They need to be strategic, and they need to be accretive, and they need to make sense for your company, short and long term. I guess that's how I would answer it. There's enough moving parts on that one behind the scenes that I just don't wanna get into details on that.

[Robbie Marcus, Senior Analyst at JPMorgan]

All right. Fair enough. appreciate it. Thanks, Al.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of David Saxon from Needham. Please proceed.

[David Saxon, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Yeah. Thanks, and congrats on the quarter. Maybe starting on surgical. You called out some pull forward buying for Paragard in front of some pricing. Just wanted to see if you could quantify that impact and talk about kind of what the underlying demand looks like with Paragard.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. For Paragard, I think we probably had about $3 million, if we had to put a number on it, that was pulled in from what would be Q2 here into Q1. That's I was talking about, like, a little bit more positive in this quarter that'll result in a little bigger hurdle, if you will, in Q2 from that. From a unit perspective, if you will, I would stand by the statements that I made last quarter, which I think we're gonna have a hard time getting unit growth this year. There's still patient flow challenges with respect to the OBGYN marketplace and definitely with respect to IUDs. I think for this year, we grow some, but it's not driven by units. It's driven by price. I still think we're kind of there.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm being too conservative on that one. That's kind of where we're at right now.

[David Saxon, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Okay. Got it. Thanks. You've talked about some contact lens capacity expansion projects happening this year. Just wondering.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Mm-hmm.

[David Saxon, Senior Analyst at Needham]

If you could give an update there and how we should think about the impact, to gross margin this year. Thanks so much.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. We won't have much of an impact on gross margins this year. I think Brian was spot on. We'll see a little bit of improvement in gross margins. I think we've got the potential for more expansion of gross margins in the coming years. If you look at capacity expansion right now, we've been busy. We were busy last year, certainly busy in Q4. I talked about that last quarter, and we start the year, but doing some expansion in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, in our U.S. facilities, doing work in the U.K. There's a lot of facilities around the world where we're doing expansion right now. A lot of that's tied to capacity expansion.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

I mean, the long-term growth dynamics within the contact lenses industry are pretty damn good right now. We're looking at mid upper single-digit growth, I think, for, you know, 10 years or something like that. We need to put some capacity in to support that. We're doing that kind of intelligently, if you will.

[David Saxon, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Got it. If I could just follow up on that last comment about mid to upper single-digit growth. I guess, you know, you had a peer talk about kind of flattish to down unit growth. A lot of it's driven by pricing and mix. Just wanted to ask, you know, if you're thinking about mid to high single-digit growth, how much of that is, you know, units versus price and mix? Thanks so much.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Well, you know, I talk about this kinda every quarter, somewhere around a third of the world is myopic today, by the year 2050, half the world's gonna be myopic. I mean, that's where the current trends are. The macro trends are saying that more and more people are going to need visual correction, that's gonna continue year in and year out for a long time. That's no surprise to anyone on the phone, and we all know how much people are staring at screens and how much kids are staring at screens and so forth. At the end of the day, you're going to have an expansion of wearers that need visual correction, a percentage of those are gonna want contact lenses.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

You are going to continue to see more and more people needing visual correction and contact lenses. Certainly here in the near term, you're going to see price. I don't think anybody's raising price like crazy, but I think I'll speak for ourselves and I'll say, you know, we're not trying to gouge anybody by any means. I mean, we're raising price because price of raw materials and other costs are going up for us, and we're not raising any prices to cover all that stuff because part of our responsibility is to drive efficiencies to cover part of that. But at the end of the day, you're going to see pricing.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

When you look at pricing, when you look at expansion of the wearer base, when you look at better fitting, and by better fitting, I mean more Torics and more multifocals, higher priced products, all that kind of activity, all that's gonna continue to drive growth. If we look back 10 years from today and the contact lens industry grew, let's say, 6% a year, I would be comfortable talking about that kind of growth rate. I think, you know, half of that could certainly be driven, if not more than that, ultimately, by expansion in terms of number of wearers.

[David Saxon, Senior Analyst at Needham]

Great. Thanks so much.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yep.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pasquale from Nephron. Please proceed.

[Chris Pasquale, Partner and Senior Analyst at Nephron]

Yeah, thanks, congrats on a solid quarter, guys. Al, I was curious, the CooperVision upside really came, at least relative to our numbers, outside of the core SiHy or myopia management segments that get all the attention. Was there anything unusual in that non-SiHy part of the portfolio? I know there was a lot of noise last year with lens solution coming out, we thought you had at least one more tough comp before you lapped that.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. I'm not sure there was anything too unusual in there. I will say that it's interesting you mention that because we did have strength, obviously, within areas like our daily silicones and our Biofinity and Avaira product. There's still demand for our products out there like Proclear and some of the older products that we have out there. Those are all declining products, but they're maybe not declining as fast as they were. We're kinda seeing across the board decent demand, including in some of the areas you're talking about that we don't highlight or discuss anymore.

[Chris Pasquale, Partner and Senior Analyst at Nephron]

Okay, thanks. Any update on SightGlass, timing of next milestones there, what we should be looking for as we go through 2023?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

SightGlass, we're continuing to work on that. We're moving through the fourth year of that clinical data, which we'll get later this year. We'll take a look at it and hopefully get that back in the FDA's hands and, you know, knock on wood, get an approval off that. We still have work to do there. In the meantime, the product's launched in several markets around the world. We're selling that product. As you know, we have a great joint venture with EssilorLuxottica, a great team there that we're really, really happy about and excited about, and I think a bright future with that product. That's, I guess, what I would say about it right now.

[Chris Pasquale, Partner and Senior Analyst at Nephron]

Okay, thanks.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yep.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Lichtman from Oppenheimer. Please proceed.

[Steve Lichtman, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Oppenheimer]

Thank you. Hi, guys. Al, I was wondering if you could talk on MiSight relative specifically to the U.S. Any, you know, color you can provide in terms of how that ramp is going, what you're hearing from customers? You know, any feedback on that would be helpful.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Sure. I would say here in the US, it's kind of the same old, same old. Good, strong, consistent performance. You know, it's not ratcheting up. It hasn't turned and all of a sudden we've hit a point where it's escalating higher at a faster trajectory. It's just good, solid, consistent performance. We're seeing that in a number of markets around the world. Now, a lot of markets have much higher incidences of myopia than the US does. If you're talking specifically the US market, I would say good, solid, consistent performance. I think frankly, that's what we're gonna continue to see, right? I mean, as I sit here today, that's what we've seen, which is more independent optometry offices utilizing the product, more retailers, buying groups getting in, evaluating the product, starting to use it.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

We haven't hit an inflection point, if you will, where it shoots up, but, we certainly have not slowed down on it. I would just say a good, solid, strong, consistent growth.

[Steve Lichtman, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Oppenheimer]

Got it. Great. Then I think last quarter, you guys talked about, you know, some increased investments this year overall on the OpEx line. I apologize if you mentioned this already, you know, is that still consistent this quarter? Still expecting an elevated investment on that front? Can you just update us on terms of what some of those investments are?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Sure. Yeah. I mean, we're continuing, no question, to have investment activity, whether it's the infrastructure of the business or whether it's commercially based around product launches. I mean, obviously in a product like MyDay energys, we're putting dollars behind the launch on that product, and we'll continue to do that. When you look at some of the other products we have, you know, MyDay multifocal, as we roll it out in different spots around the world, we have promotional campaigns, marketing campaigns supporting those products. We'll continue to do that. I would say we did that in Q1, and we're gonna continue to do that. I think that what Brian talked about here that he's really spearheaded of driving efficiencies within our business. That's a different story.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

That's not a matter of, like, cutting back on investment activities that we need to do and that are part of driving the growth of our business. That's about operating our business or businesses more efficiently than we've done in the past. I think that's great. In today's world, that's something we have to do. I can tell you that's a focus and maybe a relatively newer focus, if you will, within the organization. A focus within this organization is driving strong, efficient growth.

[Steve Lichtman, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Oppenheimer]

Got it. Thank you, Al.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yep.

[Operator]

Our final question comes from Navann Ty from BNP Paribas. Please proceed.

[Navann Ty, Lead Analyst for Healthcare at BNP Paribas]

Hi. Thanks for squeezing me in. My first question is, what is your outlook on OBGYN visits in 2023? Do you foresee a sustainable recovery of Paragard longer term and volume market share opportunities in addition to price increases?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yeah. I mean, I might be more conservative than many people on that, but, I'm still concerned about patient traffic within the OBGYN office. We've seen some improvements there, but we haven't seen a lot of improvement there. I think that might be the case as we roll through this year. I'm not saying that's necessarily true on all areas of the OBGYN world, but in the areas where we operate and we compete, that's true in a lot of those spaces. One of those areas where that's true would be in the IUD market. We just haven't seen that foot traffic, if you will, or the patient flow, return at the levels that I've been hoping.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

That's one of the reasons I was saying that I think at the end of the day, Paragard unit volume ends up being relatively flat this year, so that growth comes from price. I hope I'm wrong on that. I hope we see the traffic because that would certainly be upside. Right now, not anticipating that.

[Navann Ty, Lead Analyst for Healthcare at BNP Paribas]

Thanks. Maybe one on Cook, if I may. If the FTC requires disposal of the Cook business you'd like to keep, could you redirect M&A in other women's health acquisitions?

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Well, we could. Right now, I would say that from a capital perspective, our focus is on paying down debt. I mean, obviously the Cook transaction is out there, and we're gonna evaluate that Cook transaction and come to a resolution on it. Outside of that, I would say the majority of our focus from a capital perspective right now is on paying down debt.

[Navann Ty, Lead Analyst for Healthcare at BNP Paribas]

Thank you.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Yep.

[Operator]

I would now like to turn the call over to Al White for closing remarks.

[Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies]

Great. Well, thank you. Thank you, everyone, for your time and for joining the call today. As I mentioned, earlier, you know, this is exactly how we wanted to start this fiscal year off on a good basis. Good revenue growth at Vision, good revenue growth at Surgical, efficiencies within the company driving earnings upside, and I think we're well-positioned to have a good Q2-Q4. I look forward to seeing you guys during the quarter and certainly to our next quarterly conference call. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Brian Andrews, EVP, CFO, and Treasurer

Analysts

• Kim Duncan, VP of Investor Relations and Risk Management at CooperCompanies
• Al White, President and CEO at CooperCompanies
• Jon Block, Managing Director at Stifel
• Larry Biegelsen, Senior Medical Device Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Jeff Johnson, Senior Research Analyst at Baird
• Brad Bowers, VP of Equity Research at Mizuho Securities
• Jason Bednar, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler
• Matthew Mishan, Director and Equity Research Analyst at KeyBanc
• Robbie Marcus, Senior Analyst at JPMorgan
• David Saxon, Senior Analyst at Needham
• Chris Pasquale, Partner and Senior Analyst at Nephron
• Steve Lichtman, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Oppenheimer
• Navann Ty, Lead Analyst for Healthcare at BNP Paribas