Operator
Operator
Hello, and welcome to BD's Third Fiscal Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. At the request of BD, today's call is being recorded. It will be available for replay through August 9, 2018, on the Investors page of the bd.com website or by phone at 1-800-585-8367 for domestic calls and area code 404-537-3406 for international calls using confirmation number 278 8137. I would like to inform all parties that your lines have been placed in a listen only mode until the question-and-answer segment. And beginning today's call is Ms. Monique Dolecki, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Dolecki, you may begin your conference. Monique N. Dolecki - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thank you, Crystal. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review our third fiscal quarter results. As we referenced in our press release, we are presenting a set of slides to accompany our remarks on this call. The presentation is posted on the Investor Relations page of our website at bd.com. During today's call we will make forward-looking statements, and it is possible that actual results could differ from our expectations. Factors that could cause such differences appear in our third fiscal quarter press release and in the MD&A sections of our recent SEC filings. We will also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures with respect to our performance. Reconciliations to GAAP measures can be found in our press release and its related financial schedules and in the slides. A copy of the release, including the financial schedules, is posted on the bd.com website. As previously disclosed in April 2018, the company divested its remaining interest in the Vyaire Medical joint venture. The company received gross cash proceeds of approximately $435 million and recognized a pre-tax gain on the sale of approximately $308 million. In addition, in the third quarter the company recorded an $81 million non-cash charge to write down the carrying value of intangible assets related to the retiring of the BD CLiC system within our Biosciences business. We have redeployed select resources within our Biosciences business to allow us to better focus our genomic strategy on continued innovation and immunology research. These items, along with the details of purchase accounting and other adjustments, can be found in the reconciliations to GAAP measures in the financial schedules in our press release or the appendix of the Investor Relations slides. As a reminder, our third quarter P&L results reflect the new BD, which includes the results of C.R. Bard for the full quarter. To provide additional revenue visibility into the new BD, we will speak to our revenue results and fiscal 2018 revenue guidance on a comparable currency neutral basis. The comparable basis includes BD and Bard in the current and prior year periods and excludes the revenues associated with our soft tissue core needle biopsy and Aspira drainage product lines that were divested in February. Leading the call this morning is Vince Forlenza, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Also joining us are Chris Reidy, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer; Tom Polen, President; and Alberto Mas, Executive Vice President and President of the Medical segment. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Vince. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thank you, Monique, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 4. At BD, our strategy is driven by our purpose: Advancing the world of health. As we stated in our press release, our strong performance this quarter demonstrates that our strategy is working. As I take a step back, I'm extremely proud of what our organization has been able to do so far. This is our second quarter together with Bard. And not only are we delivering on our financial commitments, but we have also demonstrated how nimble we can be as an organization, while executing concurrently on two transformational acquisitions. Our core remains strong, and we are getting positive customer feedback and traction with our expanded portfolio and complete solutions, further solidifying our leadership position in Medtech. As I look ahead, I'm increasingly confident that we will continue to deliver even more impactful comprehensive solutions for our customers. Turning now to slide 5 and our third quarter highlights. We're very pleased with our continued strong performance as the new BD. In our third fiscal quarter – our second quarter as a combined company – revenue growth was driven by mid-single digit performance across the Medical, Life Sciences, and Interventional segments. As we expected, third quarter margins were strong. Margin expansion was driven by the achievement of operational efficiencies and continuous improvement, coupled with the positive impact of cost synergies. We're also pleased with the progress the integration teams are making. In June, we brought together the new BD leadership team for our strategic planning process. And it was exciting to see our organizations come together as one to discuss our innovation agenda and how our combined solutions can make an even bigger difference in the lives of patients around the world. Our executive team includes a diverse mix of leaders from both legacy organizations, as well as the broader Medtech and Pharma industry. Yesterday, we appointed Simon Campion as President of our Interventional segment, effective September 4. Simon is a proven leader with deep global experience, a demonstrated focus on results, and unique insight and breadth across the industry and the Interventional segment, having been part of three of the four legacy Bard businesses. For the past five years, Simon has led the Surgery business, formally the Davol division, and we're confident he's well-suited to drive the segment's innovation agenda and ensure we deliver our integration related revenue and cost synergies. We also recently appointed John DeFord as Chief Technology Officer to lead all BD R&D initiatives for the company and Betty Larson as our Chief Human Resource Officer to advance our organizational culture, capabilities, and talent agenda for the new BD. Simon, John, and Betty join Sam Khichi on our management team. Sam is also a legacy Bard leader and has been our General Counsel since the close of the acquisition. Linda Tharby has moved into an important new commercial role focused on improving the customer experience across all of BD. Beyond these leadership appointments, we are also making progress with our portfolio. In early July, we were excited to announce the acquisition of TVA Medical, a privately held company that develops minimally invasive vascular access solutions for patients with end stage renal disease, or ESRD, requiring hemodialysis. As many of you already know, this was our first tuck-in product acquisition since the Bard transaction. The addition of TVA Medical very much aligns with our M&A strategy and focus on innovations that meet clinical needs, deliver value to health systems, and improve patient lives. Also while we're on the topic of new product innovation, we were delighted to see last week that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to permanently repeal the medical device tax. The Senate vote is expected later this year. The continuation of this relief is extremely important to BD as well as the patients, providers, and research communities we serve. In summary, we're very pleased with our year-to-date performance. We continue to be impressed with the underlying momentum in both the BD and Bard businesses and anticipate an acceleration in the fourth quarter. And as a result, we are raising our fiscal 2018 revenue guidance. We are narrowing our adjusted EPS guidance, as we were already anticipating a very strong EPS growth in the fourth quarter. and we expect our increased revenue outlook will be offset by a reduced benefit from foreign currency, along with some other items which Chris will discuss later in his comments. We remain confident in our plan for the new BD and are committed to achieving our fiscal 2018 and 2019 accretion targets. So now I'll turn things over to Chris for a more detailed discussion of our third quarter financial performance and our fiscal year 2018 guidance. Christopher R. Reidy - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thanks, Vince, and good morning, everyone. Moving on to slide 7, I'll review our third quarter revenue and EPS results as well as key financial highlights. As Vince mentioned, our performance as the new BD continues to be strong. Third quarter revenue growth was in line with our expectations and was driven by strong mid-single digit growth across all three segments. On a comparable basis, revenues grew 5.5%. Our strong revenue performance includes a pricing decline of about 40 basis points in the third quarter, which was in line with our expectations. Year-to-date, pricing declined 35 basis points. I'll provide more color on revenue growth in the quarter in a moment when I take you through the results by segment and by geography. Adjusted EPS of $2.91 grew 18.3% or 11% on a currency neutral basis. Growth was driven by strong performance from both the legacy BD and Bard businesses. Despite the more recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar, FX was again a tailwind this quarter. All in, we continue to be very pleased with our performance as a combined entity. In addition to strong year-to-date revenue growth of 5.8% on an underlying basis, we expect revenue growth to accelerate in the fourth quarter, which I'll speak to when I discuss our updated guidance. Before we move on, I'll also point out that as of June 30 our gross leverage ratio declined to 4.2 times, reflecting the paydown of approximately $400 million of debt. We are on target to achieve our commitment to deleverage to below 3 times over three years. Now moving on to slide 8, I'll review our Medical segment revenue growth on a comparable currency neutral basis. BD Medical third quarter revenues increased 5.7%. Revenues in Medication Delivery Solutions, or MDS, grew 5.8% in the third quarter, driven by strength in vascular access and vascular care. Revenues in Medication Management Solutions, or MMS, grew 8.3%. As a reminder, at the end of the second fiscal quarter we reached the one-year anniversary of the change in the U.S. dispensing business model. As we anticipated and communicated to you last year, the financial impact of this change lasted four quarters and is now behind us. Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive to the successful transformation, as evidenced by the continued strong adoption of Pyxis ES in the quarter. Beyond dispensing, growth in MMS in the third quarter was also driven by strong performance in infusion. Diabetes Care revenues grew 2.4%, driven by growth in pen needles in the U.S., partially offset by the timing of tenders in emerging markets that occurred in the second quarter as previously communicated. Year-to-date, Diabetes Care grew 3.4%. Revenues in Pharmaceutical Systems grew 3.8%. Results for the third quarter were impacted by the timing of customer orders. Year-to-date, Pharmaceutical Systems grew 5.2%. Now turning to slide 9 and the BD Life Sciences segment. Third quarter revenues increased 5.6% with strong performance across the segment. Revenues in Diagnostic Systems grew 5% in the quarter. Performance was driven by core microbiology and continued growth in our BD MAX molecular platform. Preanalytical Systems growth of 5.2% was driven by global strength in core products. Biosciences revenues grew 6.8% in the quarter, driven by performance in research reagents and advanced bioprocessing, as well as growth in newer instruments, such as the FACSMelody and FACSLyric. Turning to slide 10 and the BD Interventional segment. Third quarter revenues increased 5.1%. Year-to-date, revenues grew 4.9%, or 6.1% on an underlying basis, adjusted for the impact of the hurricane in Puerto Rico in our first fiscal quarter. Revenues in Peripheral Intervention grew 8.1% in the quarter. Performance reflects strength in drug-coated balloons, driven by the AV indication and strong international growth in biopsy products, particularly in China. Growth of 1.7% in Surgery reflects strong international growth in infection prevention, partially offset by a continued hold on Progel that adversely impacted growth in Surgery in the quarter by approximately 170 basis points. We remain on track to relaunch Progel by the end of this calendar year. Urology & Critical Care revenues grew 5.6% in the quarter, driven by strong performance in our acute care Urology portfolio. Moving on to slide 11. I'll walk you through our geographic revenues for the third quarter on a comparable, currency neutral basis. U.S. revenues grew 5.9% in the third quarter. Performance was strong across the Medical and Life Sciences segments. Within the BD Interventional segment in the U.S., strong performance in Peripheral Intervention and Urology & Critical Care units was partially offset by a decline in the Surgery unit that was driven by the continued hold on Progel as previously mentioned. Moving on to International, revenues grew 5.1% in the third quarter. Growth was driven by strong performance in the Life Sciences and Interventional segments. Growth in the Medical segment outside the U.S. reflects strong performance in the MDS and MMS units. Slower growth in the Diabetes Care and Pharmaceutical Systems units outside the U.S. reflects the timing of orders as previously discussed. Developed Markets revenues grew 4.6% in the third quarter. Growth in Developed Markets was driven by strong performance in the U.S. as previously discussed and strength in Europe in the Surgery, MMS, and MDS units. Third quarter Emerging Markets revenues grew 10.5%. Revenues in China grew 13.2%, driven by strong double digit growth in the Life Sciences and Interventional segments. In addition, revenues in Latin America grew in the high single digits. Now turning to slide 12, which recaps the third quarter income statement. As discussed, revenues were in line with our expectations, growing 5.5% in the quarter. Moving down the P&L, as we expected, gross profit improved during the quarter, increasing 46.2% year-over-year. Gross profit margin was a strong 58%. I'll provide additional details on gross profit in just a moment. SSG&A as a percentage of revenue was 25.2%, which reflects Bard's higher SSG&A spend profile, partially offset by the achievement of synergies. R&D as a percentage of revenues was 6%, which reflects our continued commitment to invest in innovation. Operating margin increased 260 basis points or 180 basis points on a currency neutral basis. We continue to deliver significant operating margin expansion, which reflects strong P&L leverage as the new BD. Our tax rate was 18% in the quarter, which is in line with our full year guidance range. And as expected, we paid preferred dividends of $38 million in the quarter. As we discussed last quarter, the preferred shares are not included in the shares outstanding calculation. In the quarter, adjusted earnings per share were $2.91, which is an 18.3% increase versus the prior year or 11% on a currency neutral basis. Now turning to slide 13 and our gross profit and operating margins for the third quarter. As expected, gross profit margin was a strong 58% in the third quarter. On a performance basis, gross profit margin improved by 340 basis points. This reflects the inclusion of Bard's more robust gross margin profile as well as our continuous improvement initiatives and cost synergies. These items were partially offset by headwinds from raw materials such as resins. Currency had a positive impact of 70 basis points on gross profit margin. Operating margin grew 260 basis points in the quarter or 180 basis points on a currency neutral basis. This was driven by gross margin improvement, partially offset by the higher combined company SSG&A profile, as previously discussed. I'll take you through our fiscal 2018 guidance over the next several slides. But while we're discussing margins, I'd like to point out that we're well on our way towards delivering significant margin expansion of 200 basis points to 250 basis points this fiscal year on a currency neutral basis. Moving on to slide 15 and our full fiscal year 2018 revenue guidance. For the total company, based on strong performance across our businesses, we are increasing our revenue guidance. We now expect revenue growth to be above the high end of our previous guidance ranges with total company revenue growth of over 5.5% on a comparable currency neutral basis. This represents strong growth of over 6% on an underlying basis, excluding the estimated impact from the U.S. dispensing change and the hurricane in our first fiscal quarter. As a reminder, this also includes approximately 25 basis points of benefit from this year's severe flu season. We are also increasing our Medical and Life Sciences segment revenue guidance. We now expect both segments to grow above the high end of our previous guidance ranges with growth in the Medical segment of over 5% and growth in the Life Science segment of over 6%. We are also reaffirming our guidance of 5.5% to 6.5% growth in the Interventional segment. We continue to expect revenue growth to be driven by recent product launches across all three segments and strength in both developed and emerging markets. Our updated revenue guidance reflects developed market growth of over 4.5% in fiscal 2018 or over 5% excluding the estimated 50 basis points impact from the U.S. dispensing change and the hurricane. In Emerging Markets, we continue to expect low-double digit growth, driven by a diversified base with mid-teens growth in China and strength in EMA and Latin America. Now moving on to slide 16 and our full fiscal year 2018 EPS guidance. We continue to expect strong earnings performance in fiscal 2018 and are narrowing our EPS guidance. As there are a number of moving parts that impact earnings per share in fiscal year 2018, for modeling purposes and to ensure consistency I'd like to provide more color on EPS guidance. Starting on the left of the chart with our guidance as of last earnings call in May. We expected currency neutral EPS growth of approximately 12%, driven by strong growth in operating income. This represented 14% to 15% growth on an underlying basis, excluding headwinds of 2% to 3% from the U.S. dispensing change. We also expected currency would provide an approximate 4% tailwind to earnings growth in fiscal 2018, which is now a smaller benefit than we initially anticipated. Moving to the right half of the slide in our updated guidance, you will see that the impact of our increased revenue guidance is expected to be largely offset by a reduced currency benefit as I just mentioned. In addition, we also have an impact from the acquisition of TVA Medical. Our FX assumptions assume a euro to dollar exchange rate of $1.17, down from $1.23 at the time of our May guidance. As a result, we are narrowing our adjusted EPS guidance range to a range of $10.95 to $11.05, which represents growth of approximately 15.5% to 16.5%. We continue to expect the Bard acquisition to deliver low single digit accretion in fiscal year 2018 and high single digit accretion in fiscal year 2019. We are committed to fully realizing $300 million in annualized cost synergies as we exit fiscal year 2020. Turning to slide 17. I'd like to walk you through the balance of our guidance expectations for the full fiscal year 2018. As a reminder, this guidance includes the results of Bard as of January 1, 2018, which is the beginning of our second fiscal quarter. On a reported basis, revenue growth for the total year is expected to be over 31.5%, which is above the high end of our previous guidance range. This reflects a currency tailwind of approximately 250 basis points. For fiscal year 2018, we continue to anticipate our adjusted average fully diluted share count to be approximately 261 million shares. For modeling purposes, I'd like to remind you that net income reflects the deduction of approximately $114 million of preferred dividends. The preferred shares are excluded from the adjusted diluted shares outstanding. Beyond revenues and EPS, all other P&L guidance from May remains unchanged. In summary, I'm really excited about our continued strong momentum as the new BD. And I'm confident that we'll deliver on our commitments in fiscal year 2018 and beyond. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Vince, who will provide you with an update on our key initiatives and product portfolio. Vincent A. Forlenza - Becton, Dickinson & Co.: Thank you, Chris, and moving on to slide 19. As we have been discussing with you, our integration of CareFusion is largely complete. We have already achieved our cost synergy commitment of $350 million and are on track to realize our revenue synergy commitment. At the same time, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we're very pleased with the progress we are making with the Bard integration. As previously communicated, we have started to realize our year one cost savings and remain confident in achieving our target of approximately $300 million in annualized savings by fiscal year 2020. We're also continuing to make progress with our investment in revenue synergies that we discussed with you previously. We recently completed cross-training of the sales force in MDS, where we brought together the BD and Bard vascular access portfolios. And we have also trained and activated the new surgical sales hires in Europe that we discussed with you last quarter. We look forward to sharing future updates with you as we make additional progress across our initiatives. Turning to slide 20 and our planned product launches by segment. Starting with our Medical segment, recently we released the first BD-branded Alaris PC unit and large volume pump. This is the first new pump enhancement in more than 10 years. The BD Alaris offers customers three key areas of value. First, customers will see improved quality and reliability through enhanced connectivity and cybersecurity. They will also benefit from clinical enhancements, such as a new alarm and loading features and various clinical efficiencies. Additionally, this new pump is helping us to continue to expand enterprise interoperability through the BD HealthSight platform. So far, we've been very pleased with the customer adoption. And feedback has been positive. With respect to our type 2 patch pump for diabetes, we remain on track for our initial limited launch in late FY 2019. We have completed multiple clinical trials, which have allowed us to gather insights that are critical as we prepare for our initial limited launch and beyond. Our production preparedness continues to be on schedule to support the expected commercial demand. And we anticipate submitting our regulatory approvals for the U.S. and EU later this year. We continue to be excited about bringing this differentiated solution to the market for people living with type 2 diabetes. In our Life Science segment, we have seen continued strong performance on our BD MAX platform, driven by Enterics CT/GT (sic) [Enteric CT/GC] (26:19), as well as the recently launched MAX Vaginal Panel. We have seen strong customer adoption of our Vaginal Panel, a unique assay capable of directly detecting the three most common infections known to cause vaginitis. In addition, we will be expanding the assay menu further with the launch of MAX TV assay in the coming months. We also continue to expand our digital capabilities in support of our BD Kiestra lab automation solutions platform with instrument cup connectivity through our Synapsys informatics software. We have also released Synapsys version 2.1 in the U.S., which expands the ability of the software to establish secure connectivity across multiple instruments. Moving on to the Interventional segment. As I discussed in my opening remarks, we recently acquired TVA Medical. The addition of TVA Medical expands our leading ESRD access portfolio with a new technology that will further improve our ability to serve physicians and their patients by providing a minimally invasive nonsurgical option for creating critical AV fistulas for hemodialysis procedures. Both BD and Bard have a rich history of commercializing innovative technologies. And we will leverage that skill set and our leading position in the ESRD access space to bring this new technology to our customers and their patients. We are currently in the process of training our sales reps and clinical teams and started hiring some additional salespeople in preparation for a Q1 fiscal 2019 launch in the U.S. In addition, we recently launched the Echo 2, our next generation positioning system within our hernia business. Echo 2 is a technology that works very well on robotics in laparoscopic surgery and expands our Echo first generation technology. As you can see, we have a very rich pipeline of new products across our businesses. And we look forward to sharing additional updates with you along the way. Before I move on, I would like to speak for a moment about our commitment to sustainability, which is a key component of our strategy. We're pleased to have recently published an update on our progress towards achieving our 2020 sustainability goals. These goals provide the framework for how we manage and make an impact on the most relevant social and environmental issues for our company. We remain focused on supporting priority health needs that are aligned with the UN Sustainability Goals (sic) [UN Sustainable Development Goals] (29:04), or SDGs. And we contribute to the SDGs through our collaboration with the public and nonprofit sectors across the four key areas that comprise our 2020 goals, innovation, access, efficiency, and empowerment. We just recently joined PEPFAR to celebrate their 15th year anniversary and the global impact they've had on 14 million men, women, and children with HIV AIDS. Building strong health systems is essential for control of the HIV AIDS epidemic. And BD is proud to be in the 11th year of its public/private partnership with PEPFAR, which focuses on strengthening laboratories and improving clinical practice in several countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. As much as BD has been able to affect positive change in health care for the past 120 years, we continue to strengthen our ability and leadership in our industry. With this leadership comes even greater responsibility. Our integration with Bard will bring a renewed look at our key sustainability issues and goals. And we will communicate more about how sustainability at BD will evolve in future reports. We look forward to our progress with you along the way. We have also included a slide in the appendix of today's presentation that provides you with some details on our sustainability initiatives. We hope you find the information useful in understanding BD's commitment to this important topic. Now before I move on to my summary, I would like to thank Bill Tozzi for his great work in running the Interventional segment on an interim basis, while continuing his work as leading the integration. Thanks very much, Bill. We really appreciate it, and so do our shareholders and all of our associates. Moving on to slide 21, I would like to reiterate the key messages from our presentation today. First, our strong performance year to date reflects our early progress and momentum as the new BD. Our core remains strong. And our expanded portfolio and complete solutions have further solidified our leadership position in Medtech. This is evidenced by our financial performance across businesses and regions. Second, the integration of Bard is off to a strong start, and we have key leaders in place. We're confident in achieving our costs synergy and accretion commitments. Third, we have increased our revenue guidance and narrowed our EPS guidance as a result of our strong year-to-date performance and our expectation for acceleration in the fourth quarter. Lastly, I have increasing confidence in our outlook as we move forward as the new BD. We will continue to deliver comprehensive solutions for our customers and value to shareholders around the world. Thank you. We will now open the call to questions.