Earnings Labs

Hologic, Inc. (HOLX)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Wed, Nov 8, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Hologic Incorporated fourth quarter fiscal 2017 earnings conference call. My name is Noah, and I am your operator for today's call. Today's conference call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute. I would now like to introduce Mike Watts, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, to begin the call.

Michael J. Watts - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Noah. Good afternoon and thanks for joining us for Hologic's fourth quarter fiscal 2017 earnings call. With me today are Steve MacMillan, the company's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and Bob McMahon, our Chief Financial Officer. Steve and Bob both have some prepared remarks, then we'll have a question and answer session. Our fourth quarter press release is available now on the Investors section of our website. We also will post our prepared remarks to our website shortly after we deliver them. Finally, a replay of this call will be archived through November 24. Before we begin, I'd like to inform you that certain statements we make during this call will be forward looking. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such factors include those referenced in the Safe Harbor statement that's included in our earnings release and in our filings with the SEC. Also during this call we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation to GAAP financial measures can be found in our earnings release. Finally, any percentage changes that we discuss will be on a year over year basis, and revenue growth rates will be expressed in constant currency unless otherwise noted. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Steve MacMillan, Hologic's CEO.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon everyone. We're pleased to discuss Hologic's financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017. We posted strong results overall with revenue exceeding our guidance and earnings per share finishing at the high end of our expectations. And we redeployed more than $300 million of capital to buy back shares and retire convertible notes. Our fourth quarter results capped off a very productive fiscal 2017. Over the last 12 months, we made excellent progress toward building a sustainable growth company with emphasis on that word sustainable. In the short term, we delivered solid mid single digit revenue growth, excluding acquisitions and divestitures, as we said we would at the beginning of the year. But at the same time, we took three important steps to solidify our growth profile for the long term. First, we laid the foundations for sustainable growth internationally. Second, we shifted our business portfolio toward higher growth segments with the divestiture of blood screening and the acquisition of Cynosure. And third, we began to launch new products that reflect increasing innovation from our revitalized research and development pipeline. In short, 2017 was a year in which we delivered on our near-term financial commitments and did what we said we would do to build sustainable long-term growth. With that introduction, let's review our fourth quarter results. Revenue of $802.9 million grew 10.5% on a reported basis or 9.9% in constant currency. Excluding the impact of the Cynosure acquisition and the blood screening divestiture, fourth quarter revenue increased 5.0% or 4.4% in constant currency, as all our legacy divisions grew on a global basis. We are pleased with this solid mid single digit growth rate on the top line, which represents sequential acceleration compared to the 3.1% growth we posted in the third…

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Steve, and good afternoon everyone. I'm going to review the rest of our income statement, cover some balance sheet and cash flow items, and then discuss our financial guidance for 2018. Unless otherwise noted, my commentary will focus on non-GAAP results. As Steve mentioned, we closed out our fiscal 2017 with a strong fourth quarter. Revenue exceeded our guidance and EPS came in at the high end of expectations. During the quarter, we also strategically redeployed capital. And as we head into 2018, we see new growth drivers emerging. With that introduction, let's move down our fourth quarter income statement. Gross margins of 64.1% decreased 160 basis points compared to the prior-year period due primarily to the divestiture of our blood screening business and sales of Cynosure products, which carry a lower margin. However, it's important to note that gross margins improved by about 60 basis points on a sequential basis even if you strip out the royalty income that Steve discussed. Total operating expenses of $275.8 million increased 17.1% in the fourth quarter, primarily due to the inclusion of Cynosure expenses. If you back these out, our efforts to drive strong operating leverage continue to bear fruit with operating expenses declining 3%. Our operating margin of 29.8% declined 360 basis points due to product and geography mix as well as the divestiture of our blood screening business. Yet, we continue to maintain one of the best profit profiles in medical technology with multiple levers to drive expansion going forward. And finally, net margins of 17.8% decreased 220 basis points as the negative mix factors just discussed were partially offset by improvements in our effective tax rate. All this led to non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.50, hitting the high end of our guidance range. Now before we…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And we'll take our first question today from Isaac Ro with Goldman Sachs. Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Good afternoon, guys. Thank you. I wanted to ask a couple questions about Cynosure. First off, can you tell us a little bit about why the business declined sequentially and what's going to take it back this coming quarter, just a near-term trend question?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, why it declined sequentially, if you'll recall, Isaac, we basically changed out the whole leadership team in the July-August time period. So we gave them one quarter after we did the acquisition. Obviously, it wasn't our shining moment, and then we put the new team in. And during the new team, obviously, a little bit more transition. But I will tell you, we also, as you know, we had said we expected a fairly significant decline in the quarter. It was probably a little worse, candidly, than what we would have hoped. But I'll tell you, having just spent a lot of time with their sales organization, their leaders over the last couple of weeks, it's a very different place than it was even 30 – 45 days ago. And so I feel very good about where we're headed, and I feel very confident that we can now declare the bottom, and it's going to get stronger and stronger from here. Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Okay, that's helpful. And then maybe just on the forward, you talked about a lot of things that are going to get better in Cynosure. But I'm interested a little bit on the innovation side. The product cycles in this sector tend to have pretty high velocity. They turn over pretty fast. So can you tell us a little bit about what's coming in the pipeline that will help you guys. Will a better salesforce, better management deliver better growth? Thanks.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, great question, Isaac. And I'd clarify a couple of additions to that. One is we did just get the submental approved right at the end of the quarter, so that will be kicking in for this quarter. We have the RF platform that we've talked about. That is very much on schedule, and I think you will likely see that being launched in early calendar year 2018. And it's very important to note that all the leaders in the R&D organization and all the managers are all intact. So the inside of the company has not been affected, while the outside of the salesforce in the U.S. was. So we have a lot of pockets and stability called the international selling organization, but particularly the R&D organization, very intact. It's a big part of what we loved about this business. They've been great innovators for a long time, and we expect to continue that pace of innovation.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Hey, Isaac, this is Bob. The other thing around that pace of innovation is really one of the competitive advantages I think we have is also our clinical profile. And so one of the things with the submental that came out was not only that we got it approved slightly ahead of where it was initially, but also with superior claims to competitive products out there with a wider BMI [Body Mass Index] range and so forth. And so we're thinking about that to be able to have it serve the broadest amount of customers. So there's also that element as well.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Jack Meehan with Barclays.

Jack Meehan - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

Hi, thanks. Good afternoon, guys.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Hey, Jack.

Jack Meehan - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

So I just wanted to pick a little bit more on your conviction in this quarter as the bottom and what's going to get to growth in the fourth quarter. You mentioned regionally in the U.S. some areas are showing strength. Can you maybe just talk matching it up in terms of where the salesforce is a little bit more mature, if that was a trend you noticed? And then just a little bit more discretely, what we should be thinking for the first quarter would be helpful.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, Jack. I think clearly, to your point, we saw pockets of strength. Our West Coast team was largely intact and has delivered actually growth in the quarter. What we had is we had several teams that largely left en masse when the transition occurred, and it's filling those pockets back up. But we know how to do that. We're frankly being – we're building for the long haul. We could have easily gone out and just grabbed a bunch of people that had left and offered them a bunch of money like this industry typically does just to bring them back, but we're building it for the long haul. So I think what we feel really good about now is we've looked at what has made the regions that are successful doing well and really starting to emulate and pick up from there as we add the people. But this is going to be like international. I know everybody wants to see the immediate turnaround. I just go back. To build things sustainably, it takes a period of quarters. We could easily do a one-hit wonder and go out and just hire some people and slam some stuff through. It's not what we're about. We didn't buy this business for 2017. We didn't buy it for the beginning of 2018. We are building it. And I've got so much confidence in the leaders that we have in place now. And it's a combination of some from the outside and frankly, a lot of real stars that were in the company that are stepping up in the company, being Cynosure, stepping up. So that will give us the sequential improvement. There's just little doubt in our minds that we bottomed out, and we'll build from here.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

And hey, Jack, this is Bob, another couple of points there. So we did have some impact with the hurricanes and the weather related that we obviously don't anticipate happening in the fourth calendar quarter, our first quarter. In addition, submental came in at the very tail end of Q4. We've seen very positive early pickups. We'll obviously have a full quarter of that to be able to sell that, so those are two other additional points that should drive. In the fourth quarter, fourth calendar year quarter, it's typically the highest volume quarter of the medical aesthetics industry. So we've got a number of things here that both from a macro perspective, but also internally in addition to what Steve was saying, that give us some confidence that we will grow sequentially from the fourth quarter, fiscal fourth quarter.

Jack Meehan - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst · Barclays.

Is there a number or a range that you have in mind for the December quarter?

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

I would say it's up sequentially, but still down materially from prior year.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Hey, thanks. I'll give you a break from Cyno questions for a minute and maybe just shifting over to Breast Health.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

All right. Thank you, Tycho.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

No problem, I'm just trying to help. How are you thinking about the Breast Health setup for 2018? And maybe if you could just talk a little bit on uptake of the two different products. I'm just wondering about kind of pricing dynamics given you've got a new low-end system and a new high-end system, how pricing is going to settle out, you think, for 2018.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, at the highest level, Tycho, I feel a lot better about where our Breast Health business is headed as we go into 2018 than probably did going into 2017, and certainly materially better than how we felt six months ago. I think our team has gotten their mojo back. And the two new products are really going to help us a lot. What we're seeing is 3Dimensions on the high end is coming off to a very nice reception. And the 3D Performance is probably going to be a little bit bigger than I think a number of our reps felt. And that is going to be at a lower price. But having said that, it's similar margin to our existing business. The greatest part about that is it's allowing us to compete. As you know, some of the big boys are being very aggressive on price. We don't want to get into a price battle. But it does give us a chance to have an offering for some of the smaller hospitals where they don't need all the bells and whistles that come in our traditional Dimensions, you know, 6000, 9000 and then the 3Dimensions. So it really gives us a very good menu of an offering. And I think that really, we already saw a nice uptick there in the fourth quarter in terms of placements. We've also got Brevera coming. Affirm is building. And frankly, if I look at, we don't report orders. But it was a very nice uptick in our fourth quarter orders. And I think just there's a lot of things coming together in that business right now. As you know, we've come a long way and just avoiding the cliff. It's not going to be a super growth business in the U.S. just given how far we've come. Having said that, internationally, internationally is looking very, very good and you can see the numbers there, 20%-ish Breast Health growth internationally. And everybody – remember, a big part of that growth is Kevin Thornal, who was redeployed to Cynosure. And his first few quarters internationally looked pretty ugly and today, we're in a very different place. And it's what gives me tremendous confidence both about our ongoing Breast Health business, our international business, but also Cynosure.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes hey, Tycho this is Bob. Just to give a little additional flavor and color. So in our prepared remarks, we talked about having record shipments, over 300. Roughly two-thirds of those were the existing products. So said differently, maybe one-third of those were both a combination of 3D Performance and 3Dimensions. So it talks about the uptake has been very good. And that gives us, as Steve said, the broadest portfolio to really supply and support any customer out there. And so we're really excited about that going forward.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Okay. And then for a follow-up, just a question on Fusion I guess as we think about installed based of Panthers. Can you maybe comment on what you think the attach rate might look like? And do you have enough out there to maybe make an impact on the flu season this year with the Fusions you do have out there?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

No. I'll answer the second half of the question first. No, we won't have any impact this year on Fusion on the flu season. It just came a little bit late and we still have one more assay that we want to prove. I think it does bode well for next year's flu season. I think the initial feedback from Fusion has been phenomenal. And the magic to me is the fact that we did placed more systems in 2017 than we did in 2016. And it's too early to fully predict an attach rate, but we think it will be very high. And we're seeing just increased throughput. Everybody that gets Panther into their hands likes it. And Fusion is that much more of a game changer. So over time, we would certainly expect the majority of those and hopefully, as we get well into 2018 and beyond, hopefully most of the systems we ship will actually be Panther Fusions as opposed to Panthers. But we'll be basically taking it on a case-by-case basis, whatever is best for our customers. But I think they'll increasingly see the broader value of Fusion as well.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, I was going to say just add on to that, Tycho, we've said before that we see Fusion as really being the cornerstone of the lab for the future and our conviction only grows with customer feedback.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Dan Leonard with Deutsche Bank.

Dan Leonard - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank.

I guess, moving on to Surgical, how confident are you in your mid single growth outlook for Surgical? And specifically, what are the plans in place to stabilize the NovaSure product?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, Dan, good question. We continue to feel great about MyoSure and it continues to grow at rates far beyond what we probably would have predicted. We're a little disappointed with NovaSure. Obviously, there was the competitive. We had done a great job turning that business around. Then we benefited from the competitive withdrawal. But I think we might have taken it little easy. Maybe that business came a little too easy to us. And I don't think we've doubled down as firmly as we need to. We have put a new sales leader and some new leadership into that division to kind of step it up a little bit. And we're looking at some comp changes for that salesforce. And I think I put them a little bit of where our Breast Health business was about six months ago where I think they just slightly took their foot off the pedal, and we're are going to get that foot back on the pedal.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

I think with the addition of the new products, MyoSure MANUAL, that will also help continue to propel the MyoSure business, and as that becomes a bigger part of the overall Surgical business, that will drive the overall growth rates as well. So we feel it's still very early days on that. But that will really help us get a stronger foothold into the office-based procedures, which is really kind of virgin territory for us. And so that will help expand that market.

Dan Leonard - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank.

Okay. And just a quick follow-up on Cynosure, I appreciate the comment that there's no more voluntary turnover in the salesforce. But can you give us at a higher-level kind of how many heads you have on the street today or how many feet on the street versus you were six months ago versus where this business was 12 months ago, so we know how much more additions you need to get that back up to par?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, we are well below where they were a year ago, and particularly in some key regions. So consider that double digit percentages down. And that's where I think as we start to add bodies back into a lot of these territories, and we're doing that now, that that will drive some very nice growth. But we are materially below where they were at this time last year.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Doug Schenkel with Cowen & Company. Chris Lin - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi, good afternoon. This is actually Chris Lin on for Doug. Thanks for taking my question.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, Chris. Chris Lin - Cowen & Co. LLC: I want to go back to Cynosure. You know that some salesforce left en masse after the leadership change. You also know that the Q4 revenue was weaker than expected. So one, was this the sole driver of the weaker than expected Cynosure performance or do you see any change in the competitive dynamics here?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

No real change in the competitive dynamics, I think. We lost, as we were down people, we've got to put territories back in. There's always little pieces in that business where one company might get a little hotter for a quarter or two, but nothing fundamentally different. Chris Lin - Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. And then maybe for the follow-up question. Sorry if I missed this. But did you, or are the new hires completed for Cynosure now? And I think previously, we talked about a six-month period to get sales reps to optimal productivity. So as we think about the phasing of Cynosure revenue growth in 2018, should we think growth is likely second half weighted for Cynosure?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yeah, I think, hiring is not complete. We're hiring as we speak. And we've got some just great leaders in that business that are talent magnets, so filling those spots. But I think they will be filling through time. We'll start to see some growth here in the coming quarters and I think builds sequentially through the year. I think it will be a big driver of growth in the second half of the year for us.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Hey, Chris, this is Bob. When we look at first half, back half, there will certainly would be more growth in the back half of the year as we get that stabilized. As we mentioned, the first quarter we expect that business to be down. We expect growth in the second quarter and beyond.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Down versus year ago but up sequentially.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Versus year, that's correct.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Raj Denhoy with Jefferies.

Raj Denhoy - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies.

Hi, good afternoon.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Hey, Raj.

Raj Denhoy - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies.

I'll ask a Cyno question just to keep going on that.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

I figured you'd come with Breast Health.

Raj Denhoy - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies.

Well that would be my second question, wholly unrelated, but I'll ask that as well. So you made a comment sort of in mid call about the higher standard in a sense for hiring these folks back, the having them at the value standard in a sense of Hologic. And I guess I'm curious how much of a disadvantage that's proving to be given some of the selling practices in this industry? Are you disadvantaged because you're holding your folks to a higher standard here in aesthetics?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

You know what, I'll say no, and we believe that. Ultimately, I believe you hire great people who can work hard and outwork others, you will win over time. I think all of you know, the medical aesthetics industry has been probably not quite of the same character and values. We think we can do it and we can do it the right way. It may not be as easy, but there is zero doubt in my mind that we can do it. And I'll tell you, the existing Cynosure sales leaders who stayed with us, it's what they want. And frankly, there's a lot that the Hologic name is going to bring to this space that will play out over time. It may not be playing out in the first three, six, nine months. But what we can do for this industry, and I always believe ultimately, you do what's right for the customers, you hire great people and you treat them right and build a more enduring relationship, it will prevail. And that's what we're setting out to do. And again, you may not always see it in the short term, right, it's like athletes can win doing steroids or other things. But ultimately, who is the enduring winner are going to be that people do it right. And that's exactly what we're out to do, and we will do it.

Raj Denhoy - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Jefferies.

Well, just as a follow-up. And I'm sorry, I won't get to the Breast question. But for my follow-up, I guess just in terms of how we think about the recovery in this business then, as you still have a lot of open spots. But perhaps it's a little harder to get those quality folks in because of the standard. When is this business going to get back to where it can grow to the rates that we thought it could when you acquired it?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure. It's not a barrier to hiring quality people, let me be really clear about that. There's lot of quality people who want to come in. It's just not necessarily people with a ton of industry experience. We are getting very good quality people. And I think we see this being back to a double-digit grower in 2018, Raj. So we will deliver that, and therefore it will be accretive to our company growth rate.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Brian Weinstein with William Blair. Brian D. Weinstein - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hey, guys. I hate to continue the trend on this. But can you just talk about the accretion that you now expect from Cynosure this year? I think you had talked about $0.10 to $0.15 on a higher revenue number previously. So are you still contemplating that range? And if so, is it because you are seeing additional synergy opportunities, or would you be pulling forward some of those synergies?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, go ahead Bob.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Hey, Brian, this is Bob. At the time of the acquisition, we said that we expected to have accretion of $0.13 to $0.15, and we are still aligned with that, obviously off probably a slightly lower sales base. But we have been able to identify synergies faster and have pulled some of those in. So we're still, and that's what's baked into our estimates right now. Brian D. Weinstein - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. And then as a follow-up, what we've seen in Diagnostics, can you talk a little bit about the components there specifically, how things like your CT/NG tests are doing, any share gains there, growth rates, and then same on HPV? Thank you

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

I think in simple terms, given the growth rate of our molecular business, we're probably not going to go in it assay by assay, but we think they are growing faster than the market and taking market share, particularly in the U.S., but also reasonably encouraged obviously off a much a smaller base internationally.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

The fact that our growth, certainly in the fourth quarter, Brian, the fact that our molecular business grew ex the royalties at a double-digit rate would suggest that we have very strong growth in all of those markets, both CT/GC, HPV and trach. We believe they're growing faster than the overall market and we are gaining share.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from David Lewis with Morgan Stanley. David Ryan Lewis - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Good afternoon.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Hey, David. David Ryan Lewis - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: How are you doing, Steve? A couple quick questions just for me. Maybe, Bob, this is a good one for you. Just thinking about the fiscal 2018 guidance, the range at 2.5 points is almost twice the range of last year. Can you just give us a sense of what's driving the wider range and what are the two or three flex factors? One obviously I think I know. But what are the flex factors that make for a wider range in 2018 versus 2017? And I know you're obviously still guiding to the midpoint, but why the wider range?

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, a couple of things. To be fully honest, we're still getting our arms around the pacing of the Cynosure business. It's a higher capital business that has a little more volatility, and we're recognizing that fact. So I think that is one of the reasons that we've probably get a broader range than we had historically. We haven't been through a full-year cycle of what that business can do. And I think the fact that as we have that capital component of it, we're trying to recognize that piece. That also is the swing factor, that and the new products. And so the uptake of new products, we probably have more new products in our 2018 forecast than we've ever had. That's a good thing. But it also creates a little more potential for upside as well as some variability in terms of the uptake and so forth. But those are probably the two elements, David. David Ryan Lewis - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: And at the midpoint of your range, Bob, assuming you're forecasting double-digit Medical sales at the midpoint, then my follow-up for Steve is, Steve, you're still maintaining your synergy guidance, $0.13 to $0.15 for next year, or for this year now. Can you explain the logic of that decision? I feel like given the sales erosion and the size and scale of your primary competitor, this is probably not the year to drive earnings synergies. This is the year to reinvest to get the growth rates turned around. And maybe those two quick follow-ups. Thank you so much.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, thanks, David. I think you're exactly right. And we won't be silly to chase that to an extreme. But I think what we're seeing is there are more synergies say on the operational side and maybe some on the G&A side while we reinvest in sales, marketing, and R&D. So we're probably getting that accretion in a different way than we might have anticipated. But if we feel we need to spend a little bit more than the base business is delivering, we would certainly contemplate that.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

We've done that in the past and we will do that again.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, yes.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Richard Newitter with Leerink Partners.

Richard S. Newitter - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners.

Hi, thanks for taking the question.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Hi, Rich.

Richard S. Newitter - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners.

Hi, how are you doing, Steve? I was just wondering. Is there anything that you're seeing specifically in either the women's related to Cynosure in the women's health markets? And can you comment on your ability to leverage your GYN salesforce there? And then also, is there anything underlying going on, on the body contouring space in the U.S. just given that this is a market that's been developed for a few years now? Is it getting saturated at all on the capital side? Thank you.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yes, thanks. We still think there's big opportunities on the body contouring side. In the grand scheme, while there's been competitors and products out for five or six years, when you look at the full range of possibilities in the installed base, there's still a lot of opportunity there. On the women's health side, we also think there's much better opportunities, particularly for MonaLisa Touch in women's health than, frankly, what Cynosure had done over its last year as a standalone company and probably what we've done in the first quarter and a half, two quarters of owning it. And we're putting a more dedicated effort into particularly the women's health side. So we also want to be careful not to distract our Surgical organization because they've got two great products and still a lot of growth potential as well. So it's like anything. You find other ways, and I think frankly, it's going to be more through the Cynosure sales organization with a refocus on the opportunity.

Richard S. Newitter - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners.

I guess just as a follow-up there, Steve, is that a different strategy than you envisioned when you purchased the asset, whereas you'd need to rely a little bit more on the Cyno build-out within women's health to leverage that channel where you already have a dedicated sales force?

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

No, we're still using referrals. What I'd say, our basic approach here is use the GYN Surgical salesforce for referrals to key customers, but have the Cynosure sales reps still close them, but I think building that relationship to be better.

Operator

Operator

And we have time for one more question. We'll go to Bill Quirk with Piper Jaffray. William R. Quirk - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Great, thanks and thanks for squeezing me in here at the end. Two questions, I guess first off is just thinking about – I guess at some point here, we may start to hit a bit of a replacement cycle on tomo. I realize that we're about a little over about 6.5 years out now from the FDA approval. So I guess first and foremost, maybe we can just, I would love your thoughts on when we might start to see some initial replacements. Thanks.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure, we think we're probably still a few years away from that. And the magic of it, to your point, is we think we've still got probably three to four years of runway with tomo itself still establishing itself into our customers that haven't flipped yet. And by that point, we'll be needing some new revenue and then the early adopters will be starting to come up and it'll probably work out very well that they'll be ready for some new stuff, call it in that 2020-2021 time period. So it should really be key to helping us break this whole boom/bust cycle that really, when you look at it, and I go back two years ago, every meeting we had with investors was about the cliff. And then shortly after that, every meeting was about international. Right now, everyone is about Cynosure. We just keep knocking it up. There's issues that pop up, very proud of what we've done to thwart off the cliff. very proud of what we've done in international. And frankly, we'll be sitting here 12 months from now having shown the same with Cynosure, feel very confident about it.

Robert W. McMahon - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Yeah hey, and Bill, just to kind of frame in kind of the opportunity, we're still roughly half penetrated into our existing base. And there's still roughly about 65% based on our estimates of the installed base in the market in the U.S. that still has an opportunity to upgrade to 3D. The other thing is we continue to get 3D incremental reimbursement. We now have roughly almost 90% of all women covered for incremental 3D in reimbursement. So there's still a runway there. And then couple that with those, if in fact there is somebody next year which I would think would be the exception certainly not the rule, the 3Dimensions, that high end product would be a perfect opportunity for that early adopter. But we still have a long way to go with the existing products. William R. Quirk - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Yes, got it. And then maybe just lastly, and Steve you kind of touched on this early regarding hitting the bottom on Cyno and starting to see a recovery here in the calendar fourth quarter. I guess, talk to us a little bit about the strength of why you feel like that. Is this because you're seeing more product getting shipped out to customers? Is it because the deal funnel is getting stronger? Are we seeing less product at resellers, just curious kind of some of the bits and pieces that give you the confidence there? Thank you.

Stephen P. MacMillan - Hologic, Inc.

Management

Sure. I go back to my, probably my core management philosophy. The reason I feel better is because of the team that we have in place. And we have a better, more engaged leadership team, then the regional leaders under them are strong and motivated. And they lost their way for a little bit earlier this year. They are back, completely reengaged. There's always recency effect, but I was just with the entire sales organization a couple of weeks ago for their national sales meeting. Just hearing comments like, hey, this place is even completely different than it was 30 days ago. We're jazzed. We're ready to go. And it's the leading qualitative factor. And this is where I'll go back to, I think you've heard me say it, sometimes an organization is better than its numbers and sometimes it's worse than its numbers. And I think, but oftentimes, when you're in the midst of changing something out, you can start to see it and feel it qualitatively before the numbers start to show up. Having said that, we are partway into this quarter and we're starting to see some uptick. So I don't want to get into the process of talking about quarterly updates. But because this call is particularly later into a quarter, starting to feel certainly on a better trajectory than where we've been.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions today. This now concludes Hologic's fourth quarter fiscal 2017 earnings call. Have a good evening.