Steve Voskuil
Analyst · Stifel. Please go ahead
Thank you, Robert. Second quarter sales increased 3% to $400 million, including our CORPAK acquisition that contributed 2% of the growth. Excluding the expected $5 million decline in corporate sales, volumes increased 4%, partially offset by 2% lower selling prices. Adjusted gross margin was 36% for the quarter, compared to 35% a year-ago. The increase was driven by the shift in our product portfolio with the addition of CORPAK, favorable currency exchange rates and lower distribution costs, as we cycled against the quarter impacted by the West Coast port disruption. This favorability was partially offset by lower selling prices in S&IP. Adjusted operating profit and operating margins were $41 million and 10% respectively, compared to $48 million and 12% a year-ago. Improved gross margin was offset by planned higher SG&A investment in R&D spending to support future growth. During the quarter, we incurred $2 million of post-spin related charges, $9 million in acquisition-related charges, $6 million for litigation matters and $6 million in an intangible amortization expense. Adjusted EBITDA was $52 million for the quarter, compared to $58 million in the prior year. As Robert mentioned, we reported $0.45 adjusted diluted earnings per share for the quarter, our performance was impacted by three factors: first, anticipated lower S&IP selling prices were partially offset by increased sales volumes, largely in our higher margin Facial Protection category. Second, favorable currency exchange rates benefitted our results. And finally, commodity prices were more favorable than expected. Now turning to our segment results. Medical Devices delivered another solid quarter of growth, increasing 12% to $142 million, driven by 5% organic volume growth and 7% growth attributed to CORPAK. Higher volumes were partially offset by 1% unfavorable selling prices. In Digestive Health, sales volumes benefitted from the timing of orders in our international regions and continued growth in North America. Additionally, COOLIEF contributed another quarter of strong growth in interventional pain in North America. Finally, ON-Q growth continued giving us a full-year of growth, supported by the increasing awareness and acceptance of non-narcotic pain therapies. Medical Devices operating profit for the quarter was $29 million, a decrease from $33 million a year-ago. Higher sales volumes and favorable currency exchange rates were offset by planned increases in SG&A and R&D spending to fund growth. Turning to S&IP, net sales increased 1% to $257 million. Sales volumes for the quarter increased 4%, volume growth continues to come from our focus on exam gloves and an increased demand in facial protection due to the late cold and flu season. Globally, our sales volumes in surgical drapes and gowns for the quarter were even compared to the prior year. We are encouraged to see minimal sales loss due to the adverse media exposure related to MICROCOOL gowns. With that said, we anticipate sales headwinds in the second half of the year, due to a recent transition of a significant customer to a GPO, where we are not currently on contract. S&IP sales volume gains were partially offset by 3% lower selling prices, concentrated in exam gloves and sterilization. While the S&IP market remains challenging our price loss was at the mid-point of our expectation. For the quarter, S&IP operating profit was $25 million, compared to $26 million in the prior year. The impact of lower selling prices was partially mitigated by increased sales volumes, improved cost savings, lower distribution costs and favorable currency exchange rates, compared to last year. Turning to our balance sheet and cash generation, we ended the quarter with $79 million of cash-on-hand. Cash from operating activities, less capital expenditures or free cash flow, totaled $45 million for the quarter. With our strong financial profile, and the expectation to repay our CORPAK borrowings by year-end, we have acquisition capacity of up to $400 million to execute additional transactions furthering our company transformation. For the balance of the year, we expect to continue to generate strong cash flow, which we will use to fuel future growth. Shifting to our guidance for the year, as Robert mentioned, we are raising our full-year adjusted, diluted earnings per share guidance to a range of $1.70 to a $1.90. Based on current trends and our visibility into factors that could affect our performance, we are also updating the following key planning assumptions. Total net sales, on a constant currency basis, including corporate sales of $5 million to $15 million, but excluding CORPAK are expected to improve from a decline of 2% to 5% to a decline of 2% to 4%, compared to 2015. We now expect S&IP net sales on a constant currency basis and excluding net sales to Kimberley Clark to improve from a 3% to 5% decline to a 2% to 4% decline, compared to 2015. We anticipate the foreign currency translation impact to net sales will be flat, which is an improvement from our previous guidance of a negative impact of 0.5% to 1.5%, compared to prior year. Based on our commodity outlook, we now anticipate inflation from key inputs to be unchanged from the prior year, a change from our previous guidance of $5 million to $10 million of inflation. The balance of our 2016 key planning assumptions, which we provided on our year-end 2015 conference call on February 29 remain unchanged. In summary, I’m pleased with the progress we made on our objectives of delivering our plan and fueling our growth. We’re at the midpoint in the year and we’ve increased our guidance, the CORPAK integration is on plan and we have a strong balance sheet. We are well-positioned to continue advancing our transformation into a leading medical devices company. With that operator, we are ready to take questions.