Good afternoon. My name's Craig Bijou. I am one of the medical device analysts here at B of A. And it's a pleasure to have Teleflex with me, and from the company, Liam Kelly, CEO. Welcome. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Glad I got here.
I've heard about the elevator issues. All right. Maybe let's just start with if you could just kind of recap Q1 results and kind of some of the strength that you, you saw there.
Yeah, so, we were really happy with our Q1 performance, beginning with revenue. Revenue came in strong. We saw a very strong March, in particular in some of our business units that I'll get into in a second. And ultimately came in $11 million ahead of where we thought we were gonna land, in the Q1 . The businesses that outperformed were really our interventional business. You know, the environment in the cath lab is still globally very attractive, and it's an area of ongoing growth and opportunity for the company.
OEM continues to perform well over a multi-year period now, as the micro catheters perform well as part of the HPC acquisition, but also our general extruded catheters and our suture business performs well. Surgical took a nice step up within the quarter. So those are the business segments that performed well. Interventional urology came in line with expectations, grew at 6.1%, so very, very positive start there. And geographically, Asia Pacific, double-digit growth, EMEA came in at 9% growth for the business. So I think all in all, it was a real solid performance. Then you come down to gross margins and op margins, and they both come in ahead of expectations.
Our gross margins were beyond the high end of our full-year guide, so a really good start to the year. Our operating margins were towards the high end of our full-year guide, in excess of 26%, and earnings grew 3.9%. So anytime you grow your revenue by 3.8%, your earnings grew by 3.9%, that's a good start to the year by any yardstick.
Great. That's a great summary. I want to talk about just, you know, some of the guidance for the year before kind of diving into some of the specific segments. I think Q2, you expect Q2 growth to decelerate despite easier comps from where it was in Q1. You know, given some of the strength that you just talked about in Q1, I guess, you know, why we may see a little bit of a pullback in Q2 growth? Then obviously that implies, you know, the second half, a little bit of a ramp there. So I just kind of want to get to, you know, your thoughts around the full year and how you see the full year playing out?
So first of all, our guidance for the full year is unchanged. We still expect to grow 3.75% to 4.75%. Now, investors familiar with Teleflex will know that within those numbers, there's a headwind of 1% from an inorganic perspective. We exited an MSA, and we anniversary that, and also the acquisition of Palette. So you put those two together. So our organic guide, if we want to call it that, is 4.75% to 5.75%. And we still feel confident in our ability to achieve that. We guided to the Q2 to do $760 to $765 million, which is 3% to 3.7% growth.
And the seasonality is normal. You normally take a wee bit of a step back in Q2 over Q1, so that would be pretty normal. And but you are right, it does imply that the business improves in the back half, and there's a few very simple reasons for that. Number one, Palette, which is our latest acquisition, will continue to ramp as we go through the year. We still expect Palette Life Sciences to do $66 million-$68 million on a full year basis, and six months under our ownership, I have to tell you, it's going very well and coming in in line with expectations. We also anniversary two recalls as you go through the year.
So once you get into Q3, we will have fully anniversaried the recall in the vascular business and the recall in the anesthesia business. So you should expect to see the vascular business pick up somewhat in the back half of the year. And those are really the biggest moving pieces in the second half of the year. But I think we feel confident as a company that we can achieve the goals that we laid out for ourselves- ... at the beginning of the year. It's one quarter in, and only three more to go, and we'll be there.
Well, similar question on the EPS line. I apologize, given you know that it's just one quarter, but you did allude to your strong beat, which I think it'd be by $0.15 in Q1. I think the guidance was raised by you know $0.025 at the midpoint. There is some incremental FX headwind that's kind of built into that, but it still looks like you know the beats, the Q1 beat isn't necessarily fully flowing through to the full year guidance. I mean, again, is that conservatism to start the year, or is there anything else that we should be thinking about that could impact the margins?
Yeah, well, I guess it depends on whether how you look at the glass. Is it half full or is it half empty? I'm really proud of the performance, candidly, in Q1. I think as I said earlier, anytime you grow your earnings faster than your revenue, that's a good quarter. As we go through the year, we'll continue to execute. We've been executing well, for the last five quarters. So I've said to investors many times, Teleflex is going to execute over the period of time. We're now five for five, and we won't be happy until we're 10 for 10, in that regard. Now, specifically to EPS, we didn't guide to. Just want to start there. We didn't guide to a Q2.
We guided for revenue; we did not guide to earnings per share. Our internal plan, we exceeded by $0.09. So, what we rolled through at the bottom end of the range was $0.05 of that beat, and we're also offsetting $0.05 of headwind from FX. So we actually rolled through $0.01 more at the bottom end than we actually beat by. And one thing I forgot to mention on the revenue line, Craig, that we updated our FX assumptions, and there's a $6 million negative impact in Q2, driven by that update in FX. The biggest impact is a total, I think, of around $10 million.
Biggest impact of that is in Q2. And also there was a little bit of a pull forward in revenue from OEM. We shipped some business in Q1 that we had originally anticipated shipping in Q2. But they're rounding errors in the whole of a $3 billion annual business.
Got it. Maybe getting into some of the segments that you mentioned that have shown some strength. Start with OEM. There's several, you know, I guess, you know, other businesses or other companies that have an OEM business talked about inventory work down, and, you know, we keep hearing this. It doesn't seem to be impacting you guys that much. Then maybe just, you know, maybe you can go into a little bit more detail on, you know, why your OEM business has been as strong as it has been over the last several years. Can it maintain a, you know, a double-digit growth trajectory?
And, you know, is it customer-end markets? Is it, you know, some of your differentiated products? We'd just love to understand kind of how you guys see your business, and the impact that it can have on the overall business.
Yeah, I mean, I think our OEM business, traditionally in the past, was growing around 4% or 5%. Definitely over the last number of years, it has accelerated that growth, and there's a few reasons for that. Number one was we acquired a company called HPC, which brought us into the microcatheter area. You're just in faster-growing end markets in that business. So you're in the neuro space, the EP space, so by definition, you get more growth in those spaces. And then the core of the business, the extrusion part of the business and the suture part of the business have also performed well.
So we've always said that this business is well capable of doing high single, low double digits with good execution. I think that this year it'll do that. It had a really strong start. Because of the slight dynamics with the orders, Q1 to Q2, it'll take a little bit of a step back in Q2. But I still think that this is a business that is well capable of driving to that level. And I think this year we'll demonstrate it yet again, that it's a high single, low double-digit grower, for the remainder of the year.
All right. Interventional was another business that, if you look over the last five quarters, couple of quarters, you've had 20%+ growth in that business. So how sustainable is that? Or how should we think about the forward-looking, you know, profile of that business? You know, can that be a double digit? Can it be higher, or can it be low double digit? Can it be in teens? You know, any way to think about what that business could be.
So there's a few elements within that business that continue to perform very well. Obviously, you have MANTA in there, our large closure product. That had strong double-digit growth in the Q1 , which again, continues to contribute to the growth of the overall interventional business. Our complex catheter business, which is from the legacy VSI acquisition back in 2017, continued to perform well. We launched GuideLiner Coast in the beginning of last year. That has performed well. You've got GuideLiner, traditional TrapLiner, and you got Turnpike and that range of products that continue to do well.
We also launched a new intra-aortic balloon pump a number of years ago, and while that is not a new product anymore in the United States, it went through its registration process overseas and is seen as a new product in particular in the overseas markets. And it's getting some traction, and obviously, the balloon catheters that go with that over a multi-year period are important. And the lifeblood of that business is new product introductions. So, as I said earlier in the year or last year, we launched the GuideLiner Coast. We just have a limited market launch for the Wattson guidewire, which seems to be being well received by the customers.
We have the Ringer, which is a perforation balloon catheter that's going to come through in the back end of this year. Then late in 2025, we'll get the Triumph catheter into the market as well. So we have a cadence of new products coming through in this business, and I think that this business, again, is well capable of that high single-digit, low double-digit growth. This year it started fast, so I think it's a business that we're excited about. I mean, the cath lab right now is a good place to be. It's a good place to drive revenue. You get higher growth in that segment, and our business is performing well, and it's good execution by the team.
Got it. So, want to talk about UroLift? You know, the math suggests, you know, maybe low teens growth for UroLift, specifically in Q1. You know, by our math, I think your guidance implies that it might be down 10%, for the full year. I guess, you know, the real question here is, you know, when do you think we can see some stabilization in that business, particularly in the US? You know, I think that's where what investors are looking for. I think that. I mean, you know, in my opinion, it does a lot for you guys, once we kinda hit that baseline. So how to think about, like, how do you think about when that can happen?
Yeah. So first of all, interventional urology grew 6.1% in the quarter. Still feel confident in the guide that we gave at the beginning of the year. I think interventional urology will grow 7.5%. Palette Life Sciences is going well. It came in line with our expectation in Q1, as did UroLift. It delivered what we expected within the quarter. A couple of things within that, the office site of service continues to be a challenge, and also the training of the 50 reps. So we're cross-training 50 reps that are our best UroLift sales force, and they are now being trained on Barrigel.
So once we get into Q2 and into Q3, all of those, that training will be completed, and those individuals will be back in the marketplace. I still think that there's a cohort of urologists that want to do this procedure in the office site of service, and it's really all about the office site of service. It, that's where the decline and the change in reimbursement definitely had an impact. At some stage, it will bottom out, and as soon as the office site of service bottoms out, then UroLift will grow, because for the entirety of last year, it grew in the hospital site of service, and it's growing in the international markets. So we will continue to manage what's within our control. We...
In last year, we trained as many urologists as we trained during the peak in 2019. We have a volume rebate program in place in the office site of service. We have continued to put a focus on the clinical aspect of the product, and at AUA, we had five key papers that were published. I guess a few of the noteworthy ones was the patient satisfaction with UroLift following the procedure compared to being on meds, and also the comparison between all of the BPH procedures based on stats from the MAUDE database, based on complications from many of these other procedures.
And coupled with that, there was another study we presented on readmission rates for all of the BPH procedures, and it demonstrated the lowest readmission rate back into a hospital after you've had a BPH therapy, is for UroLift. So the product continues to perform well. International is going well, Japan is performing well, and it's really about bottoming out the office site of service. And I do believe that we do feel confident that that will happen at some stage, and we also feel confident in our guide as we have it right now.
Got it. Maybe on international. So, you know, I guess Japan's obviously a big market, so, and I know at one point you had said you expected a similar ramp to the U.S., you know, roughly a third of the size, you know, same timing. So, one, does that, you know, is that still your view of the Japan market?
Yeah, in a word, yes.
Yep.
Yep.
Okay. And I mean, I guess, what other international countries are you seeing, you know, a pickup?
Yeah, so really, when you look internationally, you want to look at the markets that are going to move the needle. The markets that are going to move the needle are, right now, Japan. It doesn't mean we're not doing business in other parts of Asia. We are in India, we're in Taiwan, we're in Korea, we're in other parts of Southeast Asia, and we began in Australia with one of the very first markets. But the needle movers are really going to be Japan and ultimately China. And where we're at in China is we have got the product registered. We are currently trialing the product to get it listed on the tenders in Shanghai and in Beijing, because they're the two biggest provinces.
As we go through that process and get it listed, we should get that listed as we go through this year. And then, in late 2025, 2026, we would hope to get reimbursement for the product in a more broader area of mainland China. And that would then allow us to make sure the out-of-pocket expense, 'cause it's a pay-for-play model there, even if you have insurance, the out-of-pocket expense for the patient that would be receiving the procedure would be much less.
Got it. I mean, any early idea or early, you know, potential contribution from China or ramp? I mean, how should we think about that? Is it, does it look like Japan? Does it look like the U.S.?
So from a number of patients, it's very impressive, because you've got such a huge population there. There are actually more patients that suffer with BPH in China than there are in America just because it's so, so large. But really, you've got to focus down on the Eastern Seaboard. And if you focus down on the Eastern Seaboard, then you're looking at a population similar to Japan that you would be able to attract.
So again, around a third of the size of the U.S. market, based on that geographical split. I think it's early days. Right now, we're just ramping slowly. We're in the private hospitals, and we're ramping, as I said, in the public hospitals. And as we start to get traction and get it listed on the tenders, then we'll be able to give a more wholesome update as to where that product category will be going. But again, they're the needle movers overseas.
Yeah.
It's really focused on. I would encourage investors to focus on Japan and China because those are the ones that are going to, going to make a difference.
Got it. Palette, you talked about, you know, how well it's doing, still relatively early, but maybe just, you know, the confidence in your high teens to low twenties growth, you know, is that market expansion, you know, or is it share taking? I guess maybe a little bit more color on kinda how you are gonna get to that level of growth.
Yeah. So I feel confident the high teens to low twenties, I think that basically gets you to that number of $66-68 million that I've been talking about on a full year basis. As I sit here today, feel really good about that. For us, it's about white space and growing into that white space. The stats are staggering when you look at how many patients don't get spacing, rather than when you look at how many patients do get spacing. Of our UroLift population that use UroLift every day, only 20% of them use Barrigel, only 40% of them use spacing, so 60% of white space to grow into. And that's a $330 million market TAM that we're growing into.
Our focus has been to convert the market. There are some conversions along the way, as one would expect, because the technology is being very well received. What clinicians tend to like about the technology is that, you can mold with the technology, so therefore, you don't have to rush. It doesn't set as quick as some of the technologies out there. So it allows the clinician time to actually use the Barrigel product to cover the entire prostate, and therefore, to protect the other sites, or the other organs. One thing I would want to mention as well is that, we're in the early stages.
We've agreed the protocol for an additional study that we believe will be able to expand the market for Barrigel by an additional $100 million or beyond that $330 million. We have identified the sites that are gonna participate in the study. We know how many patients we need to recruit. We're in conversations with the FDA just to finalize the follow-up because it's really measuring toxicity is what you want to measure, and that indication would expand the market by another $100 million. We believe that Barrigel would be the only spacing technology in this particular application that would be used that could be used in that application. None of the other spacing products would be able to be used in this specific application.
Okay. Helpful. I wanna talk about 2025. I know you're not gonna give guidance. You have an LRP that's out there. That's your final year.
Yeah.
There's a bit of a disconnect, which I'm sure you're aware, and, you know, investors bring it up, between where the street's modeling, your margins, your revenue growth, and what is implied by the LRP. So I, I guess, you know, I mean, I guess the question is, you know, how do we understand kind of what 2025 could be? You know, I think you've talked in general about revenue growth and, you know, some of the, the ways to get there. It might be a little bit harder to see the margin expansion, at least from an investor perspective. So I guess, you know, how do we think about revenue growth, margin expansion in 2025, and I guess go?
Yeah. So I think if you look at the LRP, the components of it, and we're in the second year of it right now, is a revenue CAGR of 6%. And in the first year of the LRP, we grew 6.5%. Obviously, our guide has the hundred basis points of headwind that we spoke about. But I think we see line of sight to get to that 6% CAGR. On the gross margins, we were gonna expand our gross margins by 250 basis points, so that gets us north of 61%. You know, in the Q1 , we were north of 61%.
So, I think that if we focus on executing on that gross margin, and as you know, you can't get operating margin without gross margin. So I feel that we have good line of sight to the 250 basis points of gross margin expansion. It is gonna be more difficult to get to the operating margin of 29%, but the target is the target, as we sit here today, and we're gonna continue to execute towards that. I believe that Teleflex is well capable of getting to 29% operating margin, and indeed beyond it, in the fullness of time. We'll see what happens as we close out this year on both revenue, gross margin, and op margin, then we'll use that as a jump-off into the final year of the LRP.
Got it. And, I don't know, you know, your normal cadence is an analyst day and a new LRP every three years. I mean, is that something we should expect next year in 2025?
Yeah, I think that sometime in 2025, we would have the LRP. My preference would be to have it in the autumn, fall timeframe. So I think May is a little bit early. You still have a lot of the year to run through, so we might do it a little bit later. We'll update the investment community as to when we selected the date.
Okay. Maybe just talking on inflation and supply chain, you guys have been very transparent with some of the headwinds that you've seen. I think you're expecting inflation to be a little bit higher in 2024 than it was in 2023. So maybe just think about if you can give us some color on maybe a dollar difference, and then how far above that is normal.
What is normal anymore? So I will tell you that if you go back to pre-pandemic times and pre-inflationary times, our normal inflation was somewhere in that $20 million. As we went out the other side of the pandemic, that tripled to $60 million as an inflationary number. What we have expected in this year, 2024, is not deflation, but disinflation, and that's exactly what we're seeing. We're seeing stability and improvement in our freight and in our material costs compared to the prior year period. Still up, but not growing as fast as it was. So we are seeing exactly as we thought the disinflation that we anticipated.
You do have the dynamic of the inflation that was last year gets capitalized and gets rolled off the balance sheet in the first half of this year, so that you will see that in the first half of this year. But we've got good line of sight to that, so I think that's well manageable. And I don't believe you're going to have that, a significant cap and roll as you go into 2025, so it, it, it should help with our, with our margin expansion goals and being able to achieve that, 250 basis points expansion.
I mean, could we see lower inflation in 2025? Is that too much of a-
You mean deflation?
Yeah.
I think that would be tough, to see deflation. I don't see any early indicator that you're going to get to deflation, but I do believe that you will continue to see disinflation when you go into 2025. To get into a deflationary mode would mean price reductions from all your suppliers. I can't see them queuing up for that.
Yeah.
But I do think that our team has managed it exceptionally well. And I think they've, as well as managing it exceptionally well, they've forecasted exceptionally well. And we have been able to identify what it's going to be for an entire year and map it out. So I think we have a pretty good read and understanding as to what it's going to be in this year, and that gives us a lot of confidence in what it's going to be in 2025, and we would envision definitely continued disinflation in 2025.
Only have a minute left. Maybe I'll, you know, segue into pricing. You kind of talked about it, and just, you know, your confidence that you can continue to deliver positive price as you have for the last several years.
Yeah, every year we set out our stall, and we've been able to deliver at least 50 basis points. That's the last two years, and it's the same this year. I think as we head into next year, I think it'd be in that ballpark as well. I think we've been selective in our pricing. You've got to be careful that you don't want to impact the volume because of the pricing. And I think that we've, again, done a pretty good job in managing our pricing, pushing through appropriate pricing on the appropriate product categories, without having a disenfranchised customer that would impact volume.
Got it. I think with that, we're out of time. So thank you, Liam.
Thank you very much. Cheers.