Preston Wells
Analyst · JPMorgan
Thanks, Jason. Detailed financial information has been provided in today's press release. Today, I will discuss key elements of our performance and provide color on several items that meaningfully impacted our results in the quarter, most notably the recent cyber incident. But before I go into our overall performance, let me start by saying we continue to see healthy demand across our businesses, and we are encouraged by the progress we are seeing as we head into the remainder of the year. For the first quarter, organic sales growth was 2.4%. Pricing had a 0.3% favorable impact, and foreign currency had a 1.6% favorable impact. This quarter had the same number of selling days compared to the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.60 was down $0.24 or minus 8.5% from 2025. This decline was driven by limited sales growth and lost manufacturing absorption related to the cyber incident as well as tariffs and increased interest expense, partially offset by our ongoing focus on operational excellence and a slightly favorable impact from foreign currency translation. We have diverse businesses, and the incident affected each of them differently. Because their individual results this quarter are not indicative of the underlying market performance, I will not be going into detailed sales results by business. It is also important to note that the cyber incident occurred towards the end of the quarter, creating an outsized impact on sales due to delays in revenue recognition in addition to the delayed shipments. As Kevin noted, patient care remains our top priority. From a sales standpoint, our U.S. and international markets maintained healthy demand trends throughout the quarter despite overall sales growth being constrained by the cyber incident. Differences in the impact of the incident across our businesses primarily reflect their varied operating models and go-to-market strategies. Certain businesses such as Acute Care and Emergency Care within Medical are more heavily weighted towards capital equipment such as beds, stretchers and defibrillators, which can be made to order and have longer fulfillment cycles. Other businesses are more focused on recurring consumables such as disposable waste management products that are replenished regularly and tend to demonstrate greater demand resilience. The degree of the disruption also varied based on inventory levels and consignment structures, including the extent to which products are held locally at customer sites versus centrally within our supply chain. In addition, differences in supply chain and manufacturing complexity, sourcing flexibility and logistics requirements influence how quickly the business can adapt to the disruption. Finally, procedural dynamics also affected the degree of the incident's impact. Businesses supporting procedures that could be deferred or rescheduled such as Hips and Knees experience different timing effects compared to those supporting more urgent or non-deferrable procedures, such as trauma and vascular, resulting in variability in both near-term volume and revenue recognition across the portfolio. Turning to the Middle East. The conflict in Iran has had a modest effect on our international growth for the quarter. However, the impact on our overall results was limited. Despite persistent geopolitical risks, we continue to see meaningful opportunities for long-term growth in countries like Saudi Arabia as well as other markets within the region. Now I will focus on certain operating and nonoperating items in the quarter. Our adjusted gross margin of 63.6% was 190 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2025, reflecting the impact of lost manufacturing absorption from production shutdowns due to the cyber incident as well as the impact of tariffs. As a reminder, there were no incremental tariff impacts in the first quarter of 2025. Our adjusted operating margin was 21.1% of sales, which was 180 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2025, driven by the gross margin pressure I previously discussed and the deleveraging impact of lower sales growth on operating expenses, partially offset by continued cost discipline and our focus on operational excellence. Adjusted other income and expense of $97 million was $24 million higher than 2025 due to higher interest expense from debt issued in 2025 to help fund the acquisition of Inari as well as lower interest income from a combination of lower average cash balances and lower interest rates. We continue to expect our full year 2026 adjusted other income and expense to be approximately $420 million. The first quarter had an adjusted effective tax rate of 14.5%, reflecting the impact of geographic mix and certain discrete tax items. For 2026, we continue to expect our full year effective tax rate to be in the range of 15% to 16%. Turning to cash flow. Our year-to-date cash from operations was $581 million, reflecting the result of normal quarter seasonal cash outflows and the cyber incident impact on net earnings and working capital, including inventories and the timing of receivables. And now I will discuss our full year 2026 guidance. Despite the disruption we experienced this quarter, we are maintaining our full year guidance. Given our presence in attractive end markets, healthy procedural volumes and strong demand for our capital products, we continue to expect organic net sales growth to be in the range of 8% to 9.5% and adjusted net earnings per share to be in the range of $14.90 to $15.10. We expect most of the first quarter's lost sales to be realized throughout the rest of the year with the timing and magnitude, reflecting the different product types and operating models we have across our portfolio. In limited cases involving emergent or non-elective care, we expect to offset any permanently lost sales through the strength of our continued commercial execution. And while we don't provide quarterly guidance, the cadence of our sales momentum that occurs through the rest of the year is expected to reflect the catch-up of revenue recognition in Q2, while the rescheduling of certain delayed procedures and the fulfillment of customer orders impacted by production shutdowns will be delayed into the second half of the year. Our full year sales guidance reflects a modestly positive pricing impact. Additionally, should rates hold near current levels, we anticipate a slightly favorable impact to both sales and earnings per share. Our full year adjusted earnings per share guidance reflects our expected sales recovery, our continued focus on operational excellence and some anticipated improvements in the tariff outlook. Before I wrap up, I would like to reiterate that we are incredibly grateful for the continued trust and partnership from our employees, customers and health care professionals throughout the past several weeks. Patient care remains our highest priority with a continued focus on supporting health care providers and the patients they serve. With that, I will now open up the call for Q&A.