Glenn David
Analyst · Stifel. Please go ahead
Thank you, Kristin, and good morning, everyone. We had another exceptional year with revenue of $6.7 billion and adjusted net income of $1.8 billion, both exceeding the high-end of our November full year guidance range. Full year revenue grew 9% operationally and 7% on a reported basis, with adjusted net income increasing 10% operationally and 5% on a reported basis. Going deeper into the numbers, price contributed 2% to full year operational revenue growth with volume contributing 7%. Volume growth consisted of 3% from new products, 3% from key dermatology products and 1% from acquisitions with other in line products flat for the year. We again saw broad-based revenue growth with U.S. growing 11% and international growing 7%, operationally. The innovation we brought to the market and the diversity of our portfolio was key to our strong performance, as companion animal grew 17% while livestock was flat on a year-over-year basis. Performance from companion animal was led by our parasiticide portfolio bolstered by the launch of Simparica Trio, which generated revenue of $170 million. This added approximately $150 million of incremental revenue and exceeded our expectations set prior to the pandemic. Sales of Simparica also grew double digits for the year with operational revenue growth of 16%. Our key dermatology portfolio demonstrated continued strength in 2020, growing 23% operationally, generating revenue of $925 million and increasing more than $170 million versus prior year. The COVID-19 pandemic created a difficult market environment for livestock. However, we are encouraged by the resiliency displayed in 2020. We remain optimistic that global livestock will return to modest growth in 2021 as the recovery from African swine fever in China continues and consumption patterns normalize. Operational growth and adjusted net income of 10% was driven mainly by strong revenue growth and operating margin expansion. Now moving on to our Q4 financial results, where we posted another strong quarter with revenue of $1.8 billion, representing an increase of 9% operationally and 8% reported. Adjusted net income of $438 million is an increase of 3% operationally and flat on a report basis. Operational revenue grew 9% with 2% from price and 7% from volume. Volume growth of 7% consisted of 4% from new products, 3% from key dermatology products, 1% from acquisitions and a decline of 1% from other in line products. Companion animal products led the way in terms of species growth, growing 25% operationally, while livestock declined 5% operationally in the quarter. Companion animal parasiticide grew 52% in the quarter, gaining market share in the U.S. of more than 7% in the flea, tick and heartworm segment versus the same period in the prior year. This includes the continued adoption of Simparica Trio which generated sales of $60 million in Q4. Our key dermatology products, Apoquel and Cytopoint again had significant global growth in the quarter with $257 million of revenue, representing 27% operational growth versus an extremely difficult comparative period in which key derm grew 29% for the fourth quarter of last year. Our diagnostics portfolio again made positive contributions to revenue with reference lab expansion and double-digit growth in consumable and instrument revenue. The recovery in wellness visits continues to be a catalyst for growth following the slowdown from social distancing restrictions earlier in the year. As we noted on our previous earnings call, the early fall cattle run hold a portion of fourth quarter sales into the third quarter, leading to a weaker quarter in cattle than we would typically expect. This was the primary driver of the 5% operational decline in livestock for the fourth quarter. For the remainder of the livestock portfolio, swine posted a second consecutive quarter of growth. With the herd rebuild continue in key accounts as the market recovers from African Swine Fever in China. Our aquaculture business grew high-single digits in the quarter and along with swine partially offset the decline in cattle and poultry. Now moving on to revenue growth by segment in the quarter, U.S. revenue grew 11% with companion animal products growing 30% and livestock sales declining by 15%. For companion animal, the positive trends at the vet clinic continued in Q4 with patient visits up 2% and revenue per visit increasing by 13%. Companion animal growth in the quarter were driven by sales of our Simparica franchise, as well as key dermatology products. We maintained an increase investment in direct-to-consumer advertising in both therapeutic areas and continue to see a good return on that investment. Simparica Trio performed well again in the quarter, with sales of $56 million. We remain extremely encouraged for the future growth of our product and the growth of the overall market segment as a material portion of Trio sales came from new patients to the category. Key dermatology sales were $176 million for the quarter, growing 32% with significant growth for Apoquel and Cytopoint. Our investments to support the franchise have been instrumental in driving more patients into the clinics. Companion animal diagnostics sales increased 22% in the quarter as a result of reconciled expansion and growth in point of care instruments and consumables. U.S. livestock declined 15% in the quarter driven primarily by cattle, which had a portion of Q4 sales pulled into the third quarter as a result of the earlier movement from pasture to feedlot. The remaining species declined as well with COVID-19 and pricing pressure negatively impacting our swine business. Poultry declines are largely attributed to product rotation and less producer profitability, leading to reduced usage of our premium products. To summarize U.S. performance innovation and return on investment, once again drove exceptionally strong growth in companion animal, while livestock was down in the quarter, the results were in line with our expectations. Revenue in our international segment grew 7% operationally in the quarter. Companion animal revenue grew 17% operationally and livestock revenue grew 2% operationally. Increased sales of companion animal products resulted from growth in our parasiticide portfolio, vaccines and key dermatology products. Parasiticide growth in the quarter was again driven by comparative franchise with further adoption of Simparica Trio. In Q4 we observed a series of favorable market trends, such as increased pet ownership and medicalization rates in Asia. Overall companion animal grew in every major market except Italy and the UK, which had arguably the strictest lockdown protocols. Companion animal diagnostics grew 16% in the quarter led by an increase in point of care consumable usage. Swine revenue grew 14% operationally, posting a third consecutive quarter of double digit growth. Swine sales in China grew in excess of a 100% for the second straight quarter. Key accounts expanded their use of vaccines and other products as they continue to rebuild herds from smaller farms to large scale operations. China, total products grew 45% operationally in the quarter and 34% operationally for 2020. Brazil was also a significant contributor to international growth in the quarter, growing 18% operationally. For the fourth quarter and full year 2020, Brazil delivered double digit growth in all species except poultry, which modestly declined. Overall, our International segment delivered strong results despite the challenges presented by COVID-19. Our diversity across products and geographies enabled our International segment to again be a significant driver of growth. Now moving on to the rest of the P&L for the quarter, adjusted gross margin of 67.7%, fell 80 basis points in a reported basis compared to the prior year resulting from other manufacturing costs, inventory charges, recent acquisitions and elevated freight expense. This was partially offset by favorable product mix and price increases. Adjusted operating expenses increased 10% operationally, resulting from increased advertising and promotion expense with Simparica Trio and Apoquel, partially offset by T&E savings. Return on investment from our DTC campaigns has been very favorable and we remain – and will remain an important investment to support future growth of the business. The adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was 13.5%, a decrease of 70 basis points driven by the impact of net the discrete tax benefits, partially offset by jurisdictional mix of earnings. And finally adjusted net income and adjusted diluted EPS for the quarter grew 3% operationally. In December, we announced 25% annual dividend increase continuing our commitment to grow our dividend at or faster than the growth in adjusted net income. In addition, we resumed our share repurchase program in January with $1.4 billion of remaining capacity under the current authorization. Now moving on to the guidance for 2021, please note the guidance reflects foreign exchange rates as of late January. For 2021, we are projecting revenue between $7.4 billion and $7.55 billion, representing 9% to 11% operational growth. We are expecting foreign exchange favorability in 2021 of approximately 200 basis points. We expect companion animal to be the primary driver of growth in 2021 with the continued strength of our diversed parasiticide portfolio which includes full year of Simparica Trio sales. We believe market dynamics for companion animal will remain strong in 2021, allowing for further expansion of our key dermatology products, as well as our diagnostics offerings, which we anticipate will grow faster than the overall animal health market. While we expect the pace of certain trends that accelerated in 2020 to moderate, such as increased spend per visit. Our view is that 2020 has a status of the higher base for future growth. We anticipate livestock will return to global growth in 2021, primarily driven by more normalized food consumption patterns. Geographically, we expect total company sales growth to be relatively balanced between our U.S. and International segments. However, we do expect continued and meaningful growth in China and other emerging markets. I'd like to touch upon the key assumptions that underpin our expectations for revenue growth. Beginning with dermatology, our guidance does not assume a meaningful competitive entry in 2021. And with continued investments behind the franchise, we believe revenue will exceed $1 billion for the full year. We also do not assume the triple combination product will launch in the U.S. in 2021 to compete against Simparica Trio. We're extremely excited about our monoclonal antibodies for pain, with both Librela and Solensia having long-term blockbuster potential. However, as Kristin mentioned, while both products will launch in the first half of 2021 in the EU and other international markets, we do not currently expect either product to receive approval in the U.S. this year. For the remainder of the P&L, adjusted cost of sales as a percentage of revenue is expected to be approximately 30%, which is relatively consistent with our cost of sales in 2020. Adjusted SG&A expenses for the year are expected to be between $1.775 billion and $1.85 billion. With the increase in 2020 focused on supporting primary drivers of revenue growth, including recent and future product launches, key brands and recent acquisitions, and reference lab expansion in diagnostics. Adjusted R&D expense for 2021 is expected to be between $500 million and $520 million as we remain committed to investing in pipeline opportunities for new therapies and life cycle innovation. Adjusted interest and other incomes deductions is expected to be approximately $260 million with the increase over 2020 driven by increased interest expense, as well as lower interest income. Our adjusted effective tax rate for 2021 is expected to be approximately 20%. The increase in 2021 is primarily related to the impact of favorable non-recurring discrete items that occurred in 2020. Adjusted net income is expected to be in a range of $2.08 billion to $2.13 billion, representing operational growth of 9% to 12%. Our guidance reflects our value proposition of growing revenue in line with or faster than the market and growing adjusted net income faster than revenue, during the year when we'll be making meaningful investments to support future growth. Consistent with 2020, we are anticipating elevated capital expenditures in 2021 to support investments in manufacturing, focused on internal sourcing of API, capacity increases and facilities to support pipeline opportunities. We're also investing in information technology to support our recent acquisitions, as well as digital capabilities and data analytics. Finally, we expect adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of $4.36 to $4.46 and reported diluted EPS to be in the range of $4.02 to $4.14. While guidance represents full-year expectations, we do anticipate growth will be more heavily weighted towards the first half of the year. This is largely due to full-year Simparica Trio sales and a favorable comparison versus Q2 2020 as a result of COVID-19. To summarize 2020 was another exceptional year in which we delivered 9% operational revenue growth and 10% operational growth and adjusted net income. And the year represented a unique set of challenges. Our guidance for 2021 highlights our ability to grow revenue organically above the market and grow adjusted net income faster than revenue even during times of elevated investment. Before turning it over to Q&A, I'd like to express how proud I am of our colleagues and all we've accomplished amidst an unprecedented set of circumstances. While there is no assurance that the New Year will be without similar challenges faced in 2020, we cannot be more excited about the opportunity to again deliver on our long-term shareholder value proposition. Now I'll hand things over to the operator to open the line for your questions. Operator?