Cencora Q3 2023 Earnings Report

Cencora EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $2.92
• Consensus EPS: $2.83
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.09
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.62

Cencora Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $66.95 billion
• Expected Revenue: $63.93 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$3.02 billion
• YoY Revenue Growth: +11.50%

Cencora Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2023
• Date: 8/2/2023
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, August 2, 2023
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Cencora (NYSE:COR), formerly known as AmerisourceBergen, is a global pharmaceutical solutions company that sources, distributes and supports the delivery of medicines and healthcare products. The company serves pharmaceutical manufacturers, healthcare providers, pharmacies and animal-health customers through its supply-chain and commercialization services.

Its activities include pharmaceutical and specialty-product distribution, manufacturer services, specialty logistics, clinical-trial support, patient-support programs and other services designed to help bring medicines to market and improve access to treatment. Cencora also provides animal-health products and services through its related businesses.

Headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, Cencora operates across the United States and international markets, including Europe and other regions. The company adopted the Cencora name in 2023 as part of its broader global identity. Robert P. Mauch serves as president and chief executive officer, while Steven H. Collis serves as executive chairman.

Cencora Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Q3 results: AmerisourceBergen reported 11% growth in both revenues ($66.9 billion) and adjusted EPS ($2.92), driven by strong performance across U.S. and international segments.
• The company raised its fiscal 2023 guidance to at least 8% revenue growth and new adjusted EPS range of $11.85–$11.95, reflecting continued momentum and efficiency gains.
• Strategic expansion in specialty and cell & gene therapies includes a new integration hub and exclusive distribution agreements for recently approved gene therapies.
• AmerisourceBergen will rebrand as Syncora and begin trading under ticker COR on August 30, 2023, to reflect its unified enterprise strategy.
• Gross profit margin declined by 11 bps, primarily due to lower COVID treatment contributions and higher volumes of lower-margin GLP-1 products, in line with expected product mix shifts.

Presentation

[Operator]

Hello, welcome to today's Cencora Q3 Fiscal 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Jordan, and I'll be coordinating your call today. If you'd like to register an audio question, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I'm now gonna hand over to Bennett Murphy, the Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations and Treasury, to begin. Bennett, please go ahead.

[Bennett Murphy, SVP, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury at Cencora]

Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us for this conference call to discuss AmerisourceBergen's fiscal 2023 third quarter results. I am Bennett Murphy, Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury. Joining me today are Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and James Cleary, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, we will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to GAAP are provided in today's press release, which is available on our website at investor.amerisourcebergen.com. We have also posted a slide presentation to accompany today's press release on our investor website. During this conference call, we will make forward-looking statements about our business and financial expectations on an adjusted non-GAAP basis, including, but not limited to EPS, operating income, and income taxes.

[Bennett Murphy, SVP, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury at Cencora]

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and change. For a discussion of key risks and assumptions, we refer you to today's press release and our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K. AmerisourceBergen assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, and this call cannot be broadcast without the express permission of the company. You'll have an opportunity to ask questions after today's remarks by management. We ask that you limit your questions to one per participant in order for us to get to as many participants as possible in the hour. With that, I will turn the call over to Steven.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Thank you, Bennett. Good morning, and good afternoon to everyone on the call. Today, I am pleased to discuss how Cencora's pharmaceutical-centric businesses, the strength of our balance sheet, and execution by our team members have continued driving our strong performance in fiscal 2023. In the quarter, we saw continued momentum across our businesses, delivering revenue growth of 11% and adjusted EPS growth of 11%. We are once again raising our fiscal 2023 guidance as we continue to benefit from good underlying business fundamentals and our focus on operating more efficiently. As I said last quarter, we are leveraging our commercial and organizational strengths to find ways to better collaborate with a focus on enhancing the way we go to market with our customers.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Operating efficiently is critical to our role in the supply chain and to our ability to invest as we seek to drive further differentiation in our business. Guided by our pharmaceutical-centric strategy, we advance our business by focusing on four key areas: community providers, specialty medicine and services, global access and opportunity, and customer partnerships. We leverage our robust commercial strengths to provide solutions and forge deep relationships with customers and partners globally. Community providers, from specialty physicians and local health centers to pharmacies and veterinarians, are the cornerstone of access and care in their communities. We work closely with our customers to provide solutions to support their operational needs and strategic initiatives as they enhance their patient impact.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

By leveraging our scale and expertise, we offer a broad range of solutions to our community provider customers, from those designed to help them solve for everyday challenges like marketing and contracting, to those designed to help evolve and broaden their reach. One example of this is our Alphega network of community pharmacies across Europe, where we recently introduced an oncology support program. This program provided community pharmacists with improved training to support patients undergoing cancer treatment. Alphega Oncology Support equips pharmacists who interact frequently with cancer patients with resources to help address topics such as mental health, managing side effects related to treatment, and adjusting to lifestyle habits and changes. By providing these types of valuable services, we are able to help elevate the role community pharmacists play as critical healthcare providers within their communities.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

In the United States, the completion of our minority investment in OneOncology marks an important step in evolving AmerisourceBergen's support of community oncology providers. Over the past several decades, we have built our leadership in oncology and been a strong supporter of community oncologists. Leveraging our expertise, we partner with our customers to drive innovation and share best practices to support the health and vitality of those crucial community providers. In this spirit, our investment in OneOncology further expands our footprint within the oncology space, allowing us to deepen our already strong ties to community oncologists. We look forward to enhancing the value we provide to all our partners as the oncology landscape continues to grow and evolve.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

As we continue to expand our downstream solutions in specialty, our focus on specialty medicine and services differentiates us to our pharmaceutical manufacturer partners across the commercialization process, from clinical development to patient access. As pharmaceutical innovation continues to advance medical care and health in our communities, we have positioned ourselves as a differentiated leader. AmerisourceBergen's ability to provide global access and opportunity by offering U.S. and Pan-European logistics reach and commercialization support, makes us a partner of choice for pharmaceutical manufacturers. Particularly as specialty medicines with higher commercial and distribution complexity, are making up a bigger portion of the pharmaceutical development pipeline. Our offering is particularly unique in the cell and gene space, where we can integrate logistics with essential patient support services and orchestration technology.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

While still in early days with cell and gene, we have had positive receptivity to our integrated solutions for these highly specialized products from their biopharmaceutical innovators. Cell and gene therapy is a key area for innovation as it represents an evolving and expanding market with considerable long-term growth opportunities. Following the launch of our Cell and Gene Therapy Integration Hub in April, we announced our support for the commercialization of a recently approved gene therapy. We will serve as the exclusive distributor of the product and provide commercialization support, including 3PL, kitting, and storage. Our goal is to simplify the commercialization process for our partners and help them achieve their desired outcomes. Cencora is well positioned to support the next evolution of innovative products, and we will continue to invest in developing technologies and solutions to increase our value to our partners.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Our ability to drive innovation and establish new solutions to serve our customers and partners, is key to advancing our strategy and long-term growth. Transparency into the supply chain has never been so broadly appreciated. We are focused on providing actionable and timely insights to ensure the supply chain can operate in an efficient manner. Serving at the core of the pharmaceutical supply chain, we take our role seriously, handling nearly $1 billion worth of orders daily across tens of thousands of products. Our ability to manage thoughtfully, professionally, and effectively through disruptions and shortages, amplifies the importance of the expertise and diligence we provide in the pharmaceutical supply chain. To further our ability to provide confidence and transparency, we recently announced a partnership with ParcelShield, which will enhance our customers' view of the delivery of critical medications by providing them with real-time packaging, tracking, and delivery updates.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

This example builds on other initiatives we have taken to enhance supply chain visibility, including the addition of real-time tracking on shipments in our global logistics business, and demonstrates how we are leveraging our infrastructure, enhancing our distribution efficiency, and creating innovative partnerships to deliver value services for our customers and partners up and downstream. We also drive value by leveraging our extensive customer partnerships to develop solutions that will expand access to high-quality care. In 2022, the innovative Test to Treat initiative began, permitting pharmacists to administer COVID-19 tests and prescribe certain COVID treatments. This, in turn, increased accessibility to these treatments, particularly in underserved communities. Taking learnings from the success of this program, AmerisourceBergen has partnered with SteadyMD to pilot a telehealth solution for community pharmacies, to expand the number of Test to Treat services they can offer.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

By working jointly with physicians through the SteadyMD platform, pharmacists can accelerate patient access to essential pharmaceuticals before conditions become critical. These type of initiatives fortify our customer partnerships and support our customers' growth. Guided by our purpose of creating healthier futures, we are focused on contemplating and building out other solutions to innovate how we support and grow with our partners as they improve patient care and outcomes. Over the last two decades, AmerisourceBergen has recognized the importance of being a purpose-driven company and unifying under a new name that better represents who we are today and where we are going in the future, will allow us to deliver on our purpose and advance our impact across the healthcare industry.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Today, I am tremendously excited to announce that effective August 30, 2023, AmerisourceBergen will officially become Cencora and begin trading as COR, which will unite our team members under a globally inclusive name and a ticker symbol that reflects our core role in healthcare. This new identity will allow us to go to market as a unified enterprise to our customers and partners, showcasing the breadth and depth of our solutions across our footprint. The name Cencora also better represents our commitment to our people, who are at the center of everything we do. Our team members are the key to our success, and we are focused on creating an inclusive and engaging environment where our people feel comfortable sharing their unique backgrounds and experiences. We pride ourselves on cultivating an inclusive culture and continually improving upon our efforts to ensure all our team members feel empowered and welcome.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

We've taken steps to further our inclusion efforts by signing the Chief Executive Officer Disability Inclusion Letter, published by Disability:IN, to ensure an accessible and equitable environment within the Cencora team. We were also honored to be recognized as the best place to work for disability inclusion after receiving a perfect score on the Disability Equality Index. We proactively set goals and action items to advance disability inclusion and equity, demonstrating our commitment to enacting change within the environment in which people with disabilities work. At Cencora, we are powered by our people, and we are proud to promote a working environment that supports and empowers all backgrounds, abilities, and genders. As we continue to grow and evolve under our new corporate identity, we will remain driven by our purpose.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Our future success hinges on our people, the environment, and communities in which we live and work, and I remain inspired by our team that lives our purpose every day. In the remaining months of our fiscal 2023 year, we look forward to executing on our strategy and investing in further innovation and growth. Building on AmerisourceBergen's strong legacy, Cencora will continue to be a differentiated force within the global healthcare system and provide value for all our stakeholders. The emphasis we place on innovation and efficiency sets us up for a long-term growth and success as a leader in pharmaceutical-centric healthcare. I will now hand the call over to James for a more in-depth look at our third quarter results and updated guidance going into the final quarter of our fiscal 2023. James?

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Thanks, Steve. Good morning, and good afternoon, everyone. Cencora delivered another quarter of strong results as our team members' execution continues to create significant value for all our stakeholders. Our results speak to the strength of our business and our continued work to drive efficiencies. In the quarter, we also strategically deployed capital, closing our minority investment in OneOncology, an example of investing to further our strengths, and we continued to opportunistically repurchase shares to also return capital to our shareholders. Before I turn to our third quarter results, as a reminder, my remarks today will focus on our adjusted non-GAAP financial results, unless otherwise stated. For a detailed discussion of our GAAP results, please refer to our earnings press release. Turning now to our third quarter results.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Cencora had adjusted diluted EPS of $2.92, an increase of 11% over the prior year quarter, driven by growth in both segments and a lower share count due to opportunistic share repurchases over the past year. Our consolidated revenue was $66.9 billion, up 11.5%, driven by growth in both segments, particularly in the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment, which had broad-based growth across our customer base, including growth in sales of products labeled for diabetes and weight loss in the GLP-1 class. Without this increase in GLP-1 products, our consolidated revenue growth would have been more in line with our consolidated gross profit growth. Consolidated gross profit was $2.2 billion, up 8% due to growth in both segments.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Consolidated gross profit margin was 3.33%, a decline of 11 basis points, due primarily to lower contribution from COVID treatments, which have higher gross profit margins and continued volume growth in GLP-1s, which have lower gross profit margins. Both these margin impacts are to be expected, given the unique characteristics of each of these product groups. Consolidated operating expenses were $1.4 billion, up 7.6%, primarily due to higher expenses in our International Healthcare Solutions segment. We continued to focus on creating efficiencies and working collaboratively to drive value for our stakeholders, which contributed to the sequential year-over-year moderation of growth and operating expenses in the quarter, particularly in our U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment, as a result of actions we have taken.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Consolidated operating income was $822 million, an increase of nearly 9% compared to the prior year quarter. Our operating income growth was driven by solid performance in both segments, and I will provide more detailed business drivers when discussing segment-level results. Moving now to our net interest expense. For the third quarter, net interest expense was $58 million, an increase of 9.5% versus the prior year quarter. As we look to the fourth quarter, we expect net interest expense to be at its highest level this fiscal year, given cash use in the past few months. Now, turning to income taxes. Our effective income tax rate was 21.5%, compared to 20.2% in the prior year quarter.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

As we called out last quarter, we continue to expect our full year fiscal 2023 effective tax rate to be towards the bottom end of our guidance range of 20%-21%. Turning to diluted share count, our diluted share count was 204.4 million shares, a 3.5% decrease compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2022, driven by share repurchases we completed over the last 12 months. This included $100 million of repurchases in the third quarter in conjunction with transactions Walgreens Boots Alliance executed. Going forward, we expect transactions to continue to occur, and we anticipate continuing to collaborate and coordinate with Walgreens Boots Alliance as we have done over the past year. Regarding our cash balance and free cash flow, we ended the quarter with approximately $1.4 billion of cash.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Our adjusted free cash flow for the nine months ended June 30th was $1.5 billion. We are now slightly improving our adjusted free cash flow guidance to be at least $2 billion for the fiscal year, up from approximately $2 billion. This completes the review of our consolidated results. Now I'll turn to our segment results for the third quarter. U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment revenue was $59.9 billion, up 12% for the quarter, with broad-based growth across our customer base, including sales of products in the GLP-1 class and also sales of specialty products to physician practices and health systems. U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment operating income increased by 9.5% to $635 million, as we saw good pharmaceutical utilization trends across our business.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Our animal health business had another good quarter, with growth in both the companion and production animal markets. Our operating income growth also benefited from an easier expense comparison as we lapped inflationary pressures that began in the March quarter of fiscal 2022, and from efficiency initiatives that we have taken, both of which we called out last quarter. This combination of operating expense items helped improve our operating expense margin in the quarter, offsetting most of the gross profit margin pressure from lower COVID-19 treatment contributions and increased volumes of GLP-1s. In the quarter, U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment operating income margin did still have a year-over-year decline of 3 basis points to 1.06% as a result of our mix of those two product groups.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

As a reminder, COVID product volume has continued to decline as expected, and we are earning a fee for distributing government-owned products. GLP-1s are a big driver of revenue growth, but not a meaningful driver of operating income growth. I will now turn to our International Healthcare Solutions segment. In the quarter, International Healthcare Solutions revenue was $7.0 billion, up 5.6% on a reported basis, or up 12.4% on a constant currency basis. In the segment, we saw growth in all our businesses.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

International Healthcare Solutions operating income was $187 million, up 6% on a reported basis or 7% on a constant currency basis, driven by solid performance in our global logistics business and the inclusion of PharmaLex in the quarter, which offset the impact of the divestiture of our Brazilian specialty business in June 2022. As a reminder, this divested business contributed nearly 2% of segment-level operating income in the third quarter of fiscal 2022. That completes the review of our segment-level results. I will now discuss our updated fiscal 2023 guidance expectations. As a reminder, we do not provide forward-looking guidance on a GAAP basis, the following metrics are provided on an adjusted non-GAAP basis. Full details of our fiscal 2023 guidance can be found on pages eight and nine of our earnings presentation on our investor relations website.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Starting with revenue, we are raising our consolidated revenue guidance and now expect our revenue growth to be at least 8% to reflect stronger revenue growth in the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment and favorable currency movements in the International Healthcare Solutions segment relative to our prior guidance. In the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment, we now expect revenue growth to be at least 9%, which reflects strong pharmaceutical utilization trends and also the increase in volume of GLP-1 products. In the International Healthcare Solutions segment, we are raising our as-reported revenue growth guidance to be in a range of 1%-4%, up from our previous expectation of a 3% decline to flat due to favorable currency movements relative to our May guidance.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Moving to operating income, we are narrowing our consolidated operating income guidance to a range of 3%-4% growth from the previous range of 2%-4% growth, primarily to reflect the strong performance we have seen in the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment and to reflect favorable currency movements in the International Healthcare Solutions segment. In the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment, we now expect segment operating income growth to be in the range of 4%-5% from our previous range of 3%-5%. Excluding contributions related to COVID-19 treatment distribution, we now expect operating income growth to be in the range of 7%-8% from our previous range of 6%-8%, and we are more likely to be near the top end of that 7%-8% range.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

In the third quarter, COVID-19 treatments contributed $0.06 to our consolidated EPS, with about $0.05 in the U.S. and $0.01 in the international segment. This brings our total COVID treatment contribution year-to-date to $0.29. Our full year expectations for COVID treatment contributions remain generally unchanged, and we expect only $0.01 or $0.02 of COVID-related contributions in the fourth quarter, with the contribution occurring in the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment. In the International Healthcare Solutions segment, we now expect as-reported segment operating income growth to be in the range of flat to 4% growth, which reflects favorable FX rates relative to our previous guidance.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

As a result of these updates, we are raising our full year diluted EPS guidance from our prior range of $11.70-$11.90, to a new range of $11.85-$11.95, representing growth of 7%-8% on an as-reported basis, or 12%-13% excluding COVID-19 treatment contributions. As you turn to your models, there are a few items we wanted to remind you of as you think about the fourth quarter and the year ahead. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, we had $0.17 of contribution from distributing COVID treatments, $0.16 of which was in the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

As I mentioned, this year, we expect to only have a penny or two of COVID treatment contributions in this year's fourth quarter, which will impact year-over-year growth rates. It's also important to keep in mind that in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, the dollar was at historically strong levels versus most major currencies. This should create a tailwind in the International Healthcare Solutions segment on an as-reported basis as we lap that easier comparison. As-reported growth is expected to be higher than constant currency growth in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. This dynamic is reflected in our increased as-reported operating income guidance at the International Healthcare Solutions segment level and in our constant currency operating income guidance, which remains unchanged at the International Healthcare Solutions segment level.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

We are in the middle of our planning process and feel confident that the strength and resilience of our core business and our value-creating approach to capital deployment will allow us to deliver on our long-term growth guidance. While it remains early in our planning process, at this point, we would expect contributions related to COVID-19 treatment distribution to be minimal in fiscal 2024. As usual, we will provide full fiscal 2024 guidance in November, when it can be fully informed by our detailed planning process. Before I turn to my closing remarks, I would like to provide a brief update on one of our key ESG initiatives. As we have discussed, in fiscal 2023, we introduced an ESG metric within our executive compensation program that includes three quantifiable components focused on business resiliency, female representation in leadership roles, and employee inclusion and engagement.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

During the quarter, we successfully completed the business resiliency target by completing business impact assessments across our locations. This exercise informs our resilience planning and ensures we are able to continue operating in the face of natural disasters and a changing climate. To this end, we were also proud to be recognized by Forbes on their first-ever Net-Zero Leaders List. This list recognizes businesses that are leading the way, not only in transitioning to a low-carbon economy by 2050, but also are embedding sustainability practices into their business and working to achieve sustainability targets. Companies were evaluated across industries for the robustness of a company's climate governance, strategy, and risk management principles. We continue to focus on maintaining strong business resilience practices to allow us to deliver on our role at the center of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Reflecting on this being our last earnings call with the corporate name, AmerisourceBergen, I am impressed by our company's track record of adapting and evolving over the years. We have executed on our pharmaceutical-centric strategy, building on our foundation in pharmaceutical distribution and expanding our suite of solutions for both our customers and manufacturer partners. Looking ahead, I'm excited that on August 30th, we will begin trading under the ticker symbol COR, C-O-R, on the New York Stock Exchange. This ticker is more meaningful and reflective of our business and role in the supply chain. As we begin our next chapter as Cencora, I am confident that our team members will build upon the legacy we have created and continue to drive long-term growth for our stakeholders. Now, I will turn the call over to the operator to open the line for questions. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to register an audio question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two, please ensure you're unmuted when speaking. Our first question comes from Elizabeth Anderson of Evercore ISI. Elizabeth, the line is yours.

[Elizabeth Anderson, Senior Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Evercore ISI]

Hi, guys. Good morning. Thanks for the question, and congrats on the quarter. One thing that was particularly impressive as we think about the performance in the quarter, was obviously the improvement in the OpEx. Can you help us sort of think about the sustainability of that improvement as we think about maybe the fourth quarter and then maybe conceptually beyond that? Thanks.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah, thanks so much for asking that question, Elizabeth. One thing we were really pleased about, and there's obviously so many things we were pleased about, during this quarter, but one of the things we were pleased with is that our OpEx growth was slower than our gross profit growth. As I'm sure you saw, our, our gross profit growth during the quarter was 8.0%, and our OpEx growth was 7.6%. Really, where we saw the improvement was in the U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment, where our operating expense margin declined by 11 basis points. We really were able to achieve this by in focusing on aligning our internal capabilities to our customers' needs and creating a more efficient organizational structure.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

We had talked about that on the May call, that that's something that we were very focused on. Then we also benefited from lapping inflationary pressure that had started in the March quarter of fiscal year 2022. We lapped that pressure, and so we had less cost pressure during the quarter. You know, as we look towards the fourth quarter and we look towards fiscal year 2024, this is something that, you know, our, our company is very focused on. We're very focused on efficiency, so we can really, you know, align our capabilities to our customers' needs and have an efficient organization. Thanks a lot for asking that.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Lisa Gill of J.P. Morgan. Lisa, please go ahead.

[Lisa Gill, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan]

Thanks very much. Good morning. Just want to understand a, a couple of things that are on the margin side. First, in your prepared comments, you talked about exclusive distribution relationships on cell gene therapies, and then you talked a little bit about the growth in GLP-1, which I understand, you know, high dollar value when we think about a branded, but probably a lower margin. As we think about your book of business, how do I think about, like, the progression of, of margin, especially in the U.S. distribution component of the business, as we think about, one, you know, exclusive distribution relationships; two, the continued growth in GLP-1; three, you know, biosimilars, how that plays a role?

[Lisa Gill, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan]

Then just lastly, like, you know, anything else that I should keep in mind, whether it's generic price deflation, which seems to have moderated, as we start to think about not just the fourth quarter, but, you know, thinking about 2024 as well.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah, there's a lot there. Let me start out by talking about GLP-1s because they were such a driver of revenue growth during the quarter. You know, I mentioned during my prepared remarks that, you know, we had about 11.5% revenue growth in the quarter, and that if we backed out GLP-1s, our revenue growth would have been more in line with our GP growth of 8.0%. GLP-1s really are a driver of top-line revenue growth, but from an operating income standpoint, they are, you know, minimally profitable. They really are a driver of top line, but minimally profitable at the operating income line.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

You know, this is caused by the fact that the gross profit margins on them are low. The, you know, the operating expenses are a little higher because of the cold chain nature of the product. With regard to things like, you know, exclusive cell and gene relationships, of course, those sorts of things are, you know, very positive for the company and very strategically important. But in terms of dollars, you know, small at this point in time. biosimilars, you asked about, they continue, you know, to be, you know, really kind of, key and, you know, a growth opportunity and a margin opportunity for AmerisourceBergen. You asked about generic deflation, during the last few months, we have seen some moderation of generic deflation in certain pockets.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

This is, you know, too early to call a trend, but of course, if it were to broaden beyond, you know, a few pockets into a broader range of generics, it certainly would become a tailwind for the company. You know, you, you mentioned in particular the U.S., and I think probably the, the thing that I'll point out, and I talked about this in the prepared remarks on a consolidated basis, in the U.S. segment, the gross profit margin decline during the quarter was 13 basis points, and that was really driven by two things. One is, less sales of COVID-19 therapies, which are high margin, and then, you know, greater sales of GLP-1s, which are lower margin products and minimally profitable.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

I think that addresses your questions, but, you know, I just want to finish by saying, you know, we were really pleased by the results we had during the quarter. In particular, the, you know, operating income growth that was, you know, driven by several things, including, you know, strong, broad-based results across many businesses, good utilization trends we saw in the U.S., and then, you know, the good performance we made on the OpEx front that I had earlier talked about.

[Operator]

Our next-

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Thank you.

[Operator]

question comes from Eric Percher of Nephron Research. Eric, please go ahead.

[Eric Percher, Co-Founder, Partner, and Senior Research Analyst at Nephron Research]

Thank you, and thank you for the commentary on GLP-1s. I want to stay on that subject, and it's good to hear they're minimally profitable for AmerisourceBergen. What we're hearing from pharmacies, particularly independents, is that they're not profitable. It sounds like maybe even the same for chains. Given the importance of independence, have you had to help them offset that, or is that the role of the manufacturer and others in the supply chain?

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah, so, hi, Eric, thanks. As you know, we price more on product category, so this would fit into a branded and, and indeed, a, you know, oral category that's dispensed mainly in the retail sector. You know, a fairly significant amount of this is going through mail order. So it's, you know, we don't discount on a particular product category, even as significant as this product category is. We do regard ourselves as a, as a liaison, so of course, we'll be talking on behalf of Good Neighbor Pharmacies in particular. You look at the Elevate network, we discuss this as a key product category that is affecting, you know, profitability, reimbursement, stability in the community pharmacy.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

You know, it's, it's not anything that we are, are discounting on a particular category basis. It just, it just fits into that broader category. Of course, these products are extremely important, a good example of innovation, and there's a lot of product, a lot of, you know, positives about the product as well. I think we shouldn't only look at this in terms of the negatives. I mean, I think, it, there will be a whole lot of benefits to the pharmacy industry as this category evolves, including the monitoring of side effects, potentially anything else that pharmacists can do to help manage the health of their patients. Cencora will, of course, be there to assist.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Daniel Grosslight of Citi. Daniel, please go ahead.

[Daniel Grosslight, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Citigroup]

Hi, thanks for taking the question, congrats on another strong quarter here. I just had a quick question on the adjusted operating income guidance for the rest of this year and how we should think about that going into 2024. If you back out the COVID impact and assume that you're going to be at the high end of the range for the fiscal year, it implies around a 2% sequential step down from 3Q. I'm curious if there was any pull-through from 4Q into 3Q that may be causing that, that sequential decline, or is that kind of the normal seasonality now?

[Daniel Grosslight, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Citigroup]

Then going forward, is kind of a, you know, you know, like a low teens, high single-digit growth rate in, in that segment, reasonable?

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah, thank you for asking the question. You know, let me say, of course, we were really pleased with the results during the quarter, and as, and due to that, you know, we did, you know, really kind of an across the board, you know, raise or narrowing of guidance for fiscal year 2023. We have, you know, a lot of confidence in our updated fiscal year 2023 guidance, and we have a lot of confidence in our long-term guidance, you know, which is of course, 5%-8% organic operating income growth. Then, including capital deployment, it's, you know, double-digit compound annual growth rate for adjusted EPS at the midpoint of the range. Of course, both those exclude COVID and exclude FX.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

You know, there are, of course, you know, a number of things, that can, you know, impact results, quarter to quarter and timing and those sorts of things. You know, rather than kind of, get into the details there, I just want to say that, you know, as we, are starting, and into fiscal, excuse me, the fiscal fourth quarter, you know, we've got, a lot of good momentum in our business. You know, we're seeing strong utilization trends in, the U.S. We're seeing, you know, good performance in just a number of areas of the business, and that's what gives us, you know, a lot of confidence in both our, our fiscal year 2023 full year guide and our, and our long-term guidance, that I talked about.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Of course, we're, you know, just in the middle of our fiscal year planning process now, and we'll look forward to providing our fiscal year 24 guidance on the November call. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Charles Rhyee of TD Cowen. Charles, please go ahead.

[Charles Rhyee, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Yeah, thanks for taking the question, and congrats on the quarter. You know, I wanted to go back, you know, talking about sort of the services that you're looking to do that you are providing for pharma manufacturers. You know, you talked about more commercial support, the Cell and Gene Therapy Integration Hub, etc. Can you talk about a little bit, maybe how maybe OneOncology fits into this? You know, you look at some of your peers, and some of the efforts that they're making in terms of sort of upward-facing services to manufacturers. I know you have a lot of that when we think about World Courier as well.

[Charles Rhyee, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

You know, what is the, the broader strategy and what are the services that many manufacturers are starting to ask from folks like you? You know, what's the unique position that you have here? I guess ultimately, how much share of a business do you think this will be when we think of, you know, Cencora going forward? Thanks.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Yeah. Hi, Charles. Thanks for the question. That's. I'll try to cover all the elements you asked. Of course, you know, one of the ways that AmerisourceBergen has a, a differentiated value proposition is our strong portfolio of distribution capabilities and key strategic relationships. are really ,we juxtapose and, and relate those into our upstream relationships and try to provide more services to manufacturers. Key themes that you, you know, you should keep in mind is our presence in specialty distribution, where we've been the leading community oncology, and this will only be enhanced by the One Oncology acquisition, where we expect to have learnings.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

There's been a lot of activity, for example, recently in urology. So that could be a future area of interest for us. As any of these physician dispensing capabilities become up in areas that we are already active in, including urology and rheumatology, ophthalmology, that will be of interest, and urology could be one that we are, we are very interested in as well.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

You know, aligned with our distribution capabilities to the dispensing physician and what we often call the Part B market, is our GPO capabilities. You know, I'd have to say AmerisourceBergen has really focused and invested in the development and the breadth and depth of our commercialization services. The customer is the biopharmaceutical manufacturer, who will actually be billing for a lot of these services. I think if you look at the various businesses that we've been invested in, go back to 98 when we invested in Lash, we started our ICS business for pre-wholesale, third-party logistics. We have always been, you know, a leader in this area as well, and our goal is to provide a end-to-end suite of solutions and support our partners at every stage of the commercialization journey.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

Of course, as you have new, more complex therapies, and none more so than more intriguing than cell and gene therapies, and, you know, you have, you know. When you launch them, you have cost issues, you have access issues, you have, of course, the distribution and storage issues, transportation issues. Cencora is really creating a lot of services around this. And you've heard how we even for a unique product now, we're doing some kitting, and different sorts of handling for a cell and gene product. We will continue to evolve our business. There's a lot we can do. We can track outcomes on a, you know, on a therapy-specific level.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

In some cases, we've done that in the past. We, we will be responsive to the needs of the market and continue to add value for patients on the access front and to manufacturers on, you know, taking those different distribution and other points we have to get their products into the market and efficiently and effectively. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Andrea Alfonso of UBS. Andrea, please go ahead.

[Kevin Caliendo, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at UBS]

Oh, hi, it's Kevin Caliendo for Andrea. Guys, on the international segment, you've discussed pricing visibility, and on World Courier, there's been a benefit from higher weights per shipment. Does that dynamic would increases pricing organically on a go-forward basis? I guess what I'm really trying to push or trying to understand here is how should we think about what drives margin improvement here and internationally, besides operating cost headwinds easing just for the whole international segment? Is that one of the big drivers, or is there anything else we should think about in terms of the international margin or the potential for margin improvement in that, in that business?

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah, thanks for asking that question. As we look at the international business, you know, you asked about World Courier, and there has been, been some benefit from price. I think as we look forward there, you know, probably, a good deal of the benefit we'll see from World Courier will be in volume growth. As we look at, you know, margins overall in the international business, you know, probably, what will impact it more than anything else is mix. As we deploy capital like we did in PharmaLex, you know, those will be in higher margin, higher growth businesses, and that will, you know, over a period of time, it should, you know, positively impact margin % growth in the international business. I think that'll be the key driver. Thank you.

[Kevin Caliendo, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at UBS]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Eric Coldwell of Baird. Eric, please go ahead.

[Eric Coldwell, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Thanks very much. I'm gonna shift topics here a little bit. We're seeing aging of receivables and weaker cash collections in certain of our healthcare services coverage, biopharma clients simply trying to hold on to cash as long as possible to take advantage of interest rates. I know payment's really never seen as a risk here, but at least on the pharma side. I'm just curious, what are you seeing in contract renewals, client, negotiations when it comes to payment terms? Are you seeing any of your upstream or downstream accounts, trying to hold on to cash longer than they have in the past? Thank you. Yeah, hi. You know, I can start out.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

It's a, it's an interesting question, given the interest rate environment and the, the, you know, and the, the, the different, you know, the, the, the sort of near recession we've had. I, I'm not, I'm not the economist on this call, but, you know, the, the terms in our business are, are very stable. You know, there, there are longer terms often given to the physician segment, but we are not seeing anything discernible, noticeable on changes in terms. Certainly, there's a tighter funding environment for, you know, for biopharma manufacturers and especially startup innovative products. You know, that, that, that's a cycle. We, we think we may be seeing some sort of signs of, of optimism there.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

You know, we, of course, follow very closely some of the World Courier peers, you know, larger, larger life sciences type services companies, and note their pronouncements, their comments on this. you know, nothing specifically I'd call James out on when we actually in negotiating fee for service and clauses. I mean, the terms are pretty well established. you know, the last thing I would say is that, you know, with nearly 30 years in the business, the resiliency of the balance sheet that we have, the inventory, you know, the overall majority of the manufacturers we have are, you know...

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

I'd say the vast majority, obviously, we've, we've had some few, few smaller manufacturers, you know, have run into financial problems in the last two quarters. It's if you look at the gross business of AmerisourceBergen, it's fairly negligible and very stable. James, you, you want to add something?

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah. This is, you know, of course, something that we, monitor and something that we manage, you know, very closely and, constantly, and there's, you know, no, meaningful change to call out. You know, of course, in a working capital, management and ROIC, and free cash flow are such, key value drivers for us over the long term. This is something that we, you know, really, stay on top of. I said there's, as I said, there's no major change to call out. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from A.J. Rice of Credit Suisse. A.J., please go ahead.

[Jonathan Young, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse]

Hey, thanks. It's Jonathan Young on for AJ. I'm just going back to the generic pricing commentary, appreciate that the improvement is in the pockets of products. I guess, how do you think about this from a competitive landscape? You know, is the increased pricing perhaps providing an opportunity to gain share in the market if your purchasing might be better than others? Just curious to get your thoughts there. Thanks.

[James Cleary, EVP and CFO at Cencora]

Yeah, like I said earlier, you know, this is what we're seeing is the last few months is a moderation of deflation. Again, as you know, you said, it's in pockets, so too early to call a trend. Of course, if it were a trend, it would be a benefit for us. On the sell side, which you talked about, you know, what I'll say on the sell side is, you know, it's a competitive market, and it's a stable market also. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Michael Cherny of Bank of America. Michael, please go ahead.

[Dan Clark, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

Yes. Hi, thank you. This is Dan Clark on for Mike. Are you seeing any impacts to sterile injectable pricing margins or supply after the Pfizer plant was disrupted, a little earlier, this month or last month? If so, how does that impact factoring and guidance? Thanks.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

You know, it's, it's, it's very quick. It's very soon. Obviously, that was a plant that manufactured 2 injectable products. We've actually worked closely with Pfizer, you know, in this particular instance, to see if we could help. We had a distribution center close by the impacted manufacturer plant. You know, nothing to report yet. It's, we're keeping our eye on this. You know, our supply chain group does a fantastic job, has managed through COVID, has managed through all sorts of setback. You know, we had the pharma nationalism, you know, we had on one of the calls, we had a lot of concerns about that. I don't think that one manufacturer plant will impact us.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

I also, you know, you're talking about one of the most well-established, resilient manufacturers. I would imagine they have their contingency plans and business continuity plans. So, you know, I think, we did, James and I, and Bob Mauch, our Chief Operating Officer, we did have a call with our supply chain people to understand, and nothing, nothing alarming yet, but we'll keep a close eye on the situation, and we, we feel confident we can manage through this, as we have a lot of other, you know, setbacks and, you know, that are not overall material to what, what AmerisourceBergen does. Next question, please.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from George Hill of Deutsche Bank. George, please go ahead.

[George Hill, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Yeah, good morning, guys. James, I want to come back to Eric's question, talking about GLP-1s and generics. I guess, has the growth of the GLP-1s kind of changed the generic mix and kind of compliance hurdles in the independent channels? I guess, you know, has this led to the independents kind of, like, artificially hitting generic compliance numbers, with you guys to kind of offset the branded to generic mix? I would just love to hear you delve into that dynamic a little bit more.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

You know, George, it's a good question. I mean, the, the, the growth of these products, you know, have been producing headlines, and it has altered. We, you know, we, we are, you know, we far, far from a rigid organization. We have, you know, we have discussions with our customers. We stay very close to the customers. I think, in fact, I think one of the things that I've been really proud about the teams in the last few years is we don't just deal with customers when it comes to RFPs, the large and the small customers.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

We're trying to stay very close to them, and we have a whole lot of new resources, you know, including the, you know, telehealth attributes that we're trying to help with our, our venture capital funds. Also just the general communication tools that we have with customers and the coverage we have. This, you know, the market, as James said, is competitive but stable, so we know our customers well. We know what's going on, and if we have issues, we help with them. Certainly, the growth of this product category is something that will be discussed and, you know, potentially could be adjusted for, but no clear trend yet, but it's definitely a good thought.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

You, you know, we, we have our big retail trade show this weekend, and I'm sure that this is gonna come up, because, you know, it, you know, we have, Bennett uses this term headline-grabbing products, and they, they are. I mean, since the hepatitis, drugs, we've never seen anything like it, but this is definitely, you know, more sustainable and, and even much bigger than that. Of course, much different payer mixes, etc. We, we wanna make sure that our, our partners, community pharmacies in particular, are stable for the long term, and, and, and this would include the management of these products, which are important for their patients. Last question? That was the last question. Last question. Okay. Well, thank you today. Thank you.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

We are, we are kind of a little bit emotional here as we report our last quarter as AmerisourceBergen. I know Dave Yost is gonna be turning over. He doesn't like that we haven't changed it, but we are very, very excited to be talking in the future about Cencora. Cencora is a name that I think really resonates with myself and the team as we look towards a future where we're even more of a united global health solutions leader. This name has been studied very well by AmerisourceBergen, we, we, we really believe it is resonates with our team and who we are.

[Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO at Cencora]

What's also extremely important, and I cannot understate this enough, is who we are, what we do, and how we do it will not change. We will continue to be a purpose-driven, pharmaceutical-centric leader, powered by our team members and driven to provide differentiated solutions to our pharma partners and provider customers. We will continue to build on our foundation in pharmaceutical distribution, further our leadership in specialty distribution and services, and carry forward our long track record of execution and creating value for all our stakeholders as Cencora. Thank you for your time and attention today.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes today's event. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Bennett Murphy, SVP, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury
• James Cleary, EVP and CFO
• Steven Collis, Chairman, President, and CEO

Analysts

• Charles Rhyee, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen
• Dan Clark, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America
• Daniel Grosslight, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Citigroup
• Elizabeth Anderson, Senior Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Evercore ISI
• Eric Coldwell, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Baird
• Eric Percher, Co-Founder, Partner, and Senior Research Analyst at Nephron Research
• George Hill, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Jonathan Young, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Credit Suisse
• Kevin Caliendo, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at UBS
• Lisa Gill, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan