Daniel Carestio
Analyst · KeyBanc
Thanks, Karen, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to hear more about our fiscal 2026 performance and our outlook for fiscal 2027. Karen covered the quarter at a high level, so I will add some commentary on the year and then comment on our outlook. Fiscal 2026 was another record year for STERIS, with 9% revenue growth, 7% on a constant currency organic basis. We are pleased to have translated this into 10% adjusted earnings per share growth despite the 80 basis points of impact from tariffs on margins. Our businesses all hit new milestones this year, contributing to total company revenue of approximately $6 billion in adjusted net income topping $1 billion. This is an exciting time to be at STERIS and we expect to continue to grow the business mid- to high single digits organically over time and leverage that to deliver double-digit bottom line growth. Supporting our growth, U.S. procedure volume continues to grow mid-single digits, a level we expect to be consistent in fiscal 2027. Procedure volume outside of the U.S. do continue to lag a bit. which impacts our AST segment a little bit more than Healthcare. From a segment perspective, Healthcare reported another strong year, growing 9% as reported and 8% from a constant currency organic perspective. This growth was driven by another remarkable year for service, growing 12% and as well as 7% growth in consumables as we continue to pick up share, thanks to the breadth of our portfolio and the performance of our commercial teams. Capital equipment also grew nicely, up 6% for the year, stabilizing after the last several years of lumpiness. Capital equipment backlog ended just under $400 million with orders up 2% in the fourth quarter. This year, we reached new milestones in Healthcare business, generating $4 billion in revenue and $1 billion in operating income. We continue to be excited about what is yet to come as we expand our offering through organic and inorganic growth to deliver products and services that address the most pressing operational needs of our customers. AST grew 10% as reported and 7% constant currency organic. This was a bit lighter than what we had anticipated with softness in the second half of the year. In particular, a slower fourth quarter for services due to the severe snowstorms in the U.S. early in the calendar year. For the year, our services business grew 11% as reported or about 8% constant currency organic which aligns with our expectations for the business going forward. With over $1 billion in revenue, AST crossed a new milestone of its own exceeding $500 million in operating profit. Life Sciences grew 9% as reported and 7% constant currency organic, driven by 15% growth in capital equipment as our customers return to capital investment again following last year's downturn. Consumables continued their steady path of growth at 8% and services improved 5% despite some more quarterly volatility than we usually see. Capital equipment backlog ended solid at just under $100 million. Life Science posted its own record year, exceeding $250 million in operating profit for the first time, reflecting strong operating margins. Total company EBIT margins expanded by 10 basis points to 23.3% for fiscal 2026 despite incremental tariff costs of approximately $46 million, which trimmed our margin by 80 basis points. Lower interest contributed to our double-digit growth in adjusted earnings at $10.17 per diluted share. We also stayed true to our capital deployment priorities this year. We increased the quarterly dividend $0.06 to $0.63, our 20th year of dividend growth. We invested in ourselves, in particular, in AST expansions projects for x-ray globally. In addition, we completed 2 tuck-in acquisitions that add to our health care portfolio globally. And last but not least, we used $225 million for share buybacks. As you saw in our press release, the Board has approved a new $1 billion buyback authorization. Going forward, we expect to utilize excess cash to consistently buy back shares in the range of $200 million to $300 million per year. Turning to our outlook for fiscal 2027. As noted in the press release, we anticipate as-reported revenue to grow 7% to 8% in fiscal 2027. Changes in foreign currency are expected to be slightly favorable to STERIS. Tuck-in acquisitions in Healthcare are contributing inorganic revenue to our as-reported outlook for the segment and total company. There are 2 acquisitions driving this contribution. In the fourth quarter, we vertically integrated our supplier for MEDglas walls, extending our reach from the U.S. to global. In addition, early in the first quarter, we acquired a family of GI products that expanded our offering and improved our channel. These 2 acquisitions are expected to contribute combined revenues of approximately $45 million to fiscal 2027. As a result, constant currency organic revenue growth is expected to be 6% to 7% for the total company. This outlook assumes approximately 200 basis points of price. From a segment perspective, we anticipate Healthcare and Life Sciences to grow 6% to 7% constant currency organic and AST to grow 7% to 8%. We are taking a more conservative approach on our outlook to AST to start the year. Our med tech customers continue to manage inventory levels carefully and we are heading into the new year with some difficult comparisons in the first half, leaving us cautious. For fiscal 2027, EBIT margins are anticipated to expand approximately 50 basis points, at the high end of our outlook. This assumes tariff spending is flat year-over-year and the benefit of a tailwind from our incentive compensation program. We will be making select investments in FY '27 driving incremental operating expenses, including kicking off a multiyear project to support our service workflows with upgraded technologies utilizing AI to improve quality, increase productivity and enhance the customer experience within both the Healthcare and Life Science segments. Our fiscal 2027 earnings per share outlook is $11.10 to $11.30, growth of 9% to 11% over fiscal 2026. In fiscal 2027, free cash flow is expected to be $850 million and CapEx of $375 million. Underlying our free cash flow expectations, we expect that net working capital will grow in line with volumes. We will also use about $50 million for additional incentive compensation payments due in June and the remainder of our EO settlement payments over the year. From a capital perspective, our capital spending priorities are shifting a bit as we are nearly done with our multiyear X-ray expansion in AST. In fiscal 2027, we will build a new sterility assurance manufacturing plant in Mentor, Ohio, which will ultimately allow us to consolidate existing U.S. production into one new state-of-the-art manufacturing center of excellence to serve our Healthcare and Life Science customers. We will invest about $60 million over 2 years and expect that plant to be operational by the end of calendar 2027. Fiscal 2026 was a banner year in many ways for STERIS. Looking back at the last 5 years, our performance has really been remarkable. We delivered average constant currency organic revenue growth of 9%, and our compounded annual growth rate for adjusted earnings was 11% during what was one of the more tumultuous 5 years in our history here. Equally important, our Healthcare organization has transformed from a products and services focused to a valued partner to Healthcare customers to help enable them to solve some of their most pressing operational challenges that they are facing. We are committed to partnering with our customers to enable them to meet their procedural growth needs, improve the delivery of the quality outcomes and improve standardization and optimization as they manage critical inventory from the OR to the SPD and back. Thank you to all of our associates for continuing to do what you do best, focus on our customers and strive to do better every single day. That concludes our prepared remarks for the call. Operator, would you please give the instructions so we can begin the Q&A.