Earnings Labs

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. (XRAY)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Fri, May 6, 2016

$11.45

-2.80%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-1.99%

1 Week

-0.96%

1 Month

+4.19%

vs S&P

+0.96%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Dentsply Sirona, Inc., First Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being record. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Joshua Zable, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communication. Sir, you may begin.

Joshua Zable - Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2016 conference call. I would like to remind you that an earnings slide deck presentation relating to this call is available on our website at www.dentsplysirona.com. Before we begin, please take a moment to read the forward-looking statements on slides two and three of our earnings slide presentation. During today's conference call, we'll make certain predictive statements that reflect our current views about our future performance and financial results. We take these statements on certain assumptions and expectations of future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our most recent Form 10-K lists some of our most important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from our predictions. And with that, I'll now turn the program over to Jeffrey Slovin, Chief Executive Officer of Dentsply Sirona. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Josh. It is my pleasure to welcome all of you to our first quarter and first ever conference call as Dentsply Sirona. Also joining us on the call today, Ulrich Michel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Chris Clark, President and Chief Operating Officer of our Technologies business; and Derek Leckow, Vice President of Investor Relations. I'm delighted to report that our first quarter was a very successful one. We seamlessly completed our merger and begin working on the great opportunities ahead of us. Rather than being distracted by the merger, the team came together and was energized to perform. In our first 67 days together, Dentsply Sirona team has much to be proud of. We've rebranded our company, announced our leadership team, and created an operating model to help optimize our growth. As you can see on the earnings presentation, we have organized our self into two segments:…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our first question will come from Jeff Johnson with Robert Baird. Jeff D. Johnson - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Thank you. Can you hear me okay, guys? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Perfect. Ulrich Michel - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP: Good morning, Jeff. Jeff D. Johnson - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): All right. Great. Congratulations, guys, on a good first quarter here. Jeff, just wanted to start with you and then I have a follow-up for Uli. But I know you've only been in the seat now for a couple months here running the combined companies. But as you put everything together, any sense yet on kind of how you're thinking about the next several years from a top line perspective or maybe from an earnings growth perspective, just how you're seeing the two companies come together? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: New company, same old questions, right? Look, first of all, it is early days and I have to tell you I'm thrilled with what the team's been able to do together. Frankly, one of the nice surprises is to see how talented we are across the globe in sales, marketing, R&D and certainly our functional areas, HR and finance. It's a big deal when two of the largest companies come together to make sure that you have the right cultural fit. But one thing is for sure that we aligned on is really on our mission, Jeff, which is to empower dental professionals to deliver better, safer and faster dental care. And this idea of end-to-end solutions is where we feel the market is going. So a key fundamental to the merger was growth. So we expect to grow…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Robert Willoughby with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Tyler Harris - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hey, guys. It's Tyler Harris in for Bob today. It looks like you guys had pretty impressive internal growth rates across the board in the quarter. Can you give us any additional color on specific countries markets growth rates, especially in regards to Europe and Asia Pacific? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sure. So I think we were across the board strong. No question about it. Rest of the world led the way for us. And of course, in the rest of the world, let's start there, a number of those areas are challenged. Japan, of course, is a very important market for us. But it has its challenges, but we continue to perform well. You'll start to hear a theme here, Tyler. China also had some challenges, but very pleased with what the team was able to accomplish there. And even Brazil, which certainly has its challenges, we were able to do particularly well in the consumables area, which is pleasing for us. We expect the rest of the world to be a growth driver for us for the rest of the year. In Europe, we did well. We haven't seen anything really change over the last six months. Frankly, Russia still has some challenges, but I was pleased with how the team was able to perform, especially looking at our pipeline ahead, we have a number of projects there. Southern Europe seems to be picking up for us, albeit it's a low base. Germany performed but did not lead Europe. And then we saw strong growth in both Technologies and Consumables in Europe. But I would caution that our second quarter will be a difficult comp because of IDS last year. And keep in mind that IDS was a record for us. In the U.S., again, very strong growth led by Technologies and also up operatory consumables. We feel good about what we're able to accomplish. We also see that the U.S. market is improving and the underlying demand for our products are strong. Tyler Harris - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Robert Jones with Goldman Sachs. Robert Patrick Jones - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thanks for the questions. The original view was for the deal to be accretive in year one. Now, Jeff, that you've had a little bit more time, not a ton, but a little bit more time to put the companies together and evaluate, as well as evaluate the synergies a little bit more deeply, can you maybe just give us a better sense of what you're seeing as far as the accretion or what your expectation is as far as the accretion will be in 2016, specifically? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, specifically, we're not going to get into that. But we'd say we're not backing off of our being accretive over the first 12 months, absolutely. We see such positive ability to grow together. And, of course, we've had a little headwind that Uli has talked about, but by and large, everything is on track or doing better. Again, 67 days into this, pleased about how the team has mobilized together. We've certainly got some FX headwinds, and as Uli, I think, did a very nice job earlier talked about the share count headwind as well. But from a standpoint of growth in this market 4% to 6%, we think is leading the way. And we feel good about our prospects for the rest of 2016. And we started our year with a very solid quarter. So I think we're in a good place, Bob. Robert Patrick Jones - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Got it. Got it. And then I guess just one specific one on the Technology segment. Really nice growth there in the quarter. Was wondering if you could comment on the sales…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John Kreger with William Blair. Roberto V. Fatta - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning, guys. This is Robbie Fatta in for John today. Thanks for taking the question. As we think about the new segment structure, is there any additional detail you'll be giving going forward on some of the sub-segments? I know we just talked about CAD/CAM a little bit, but imaging or implants or any of the traditional sub-segments that we used to get more detail on, will we be getting any going forward? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, we'll certainly give you color for how they performed and certainly talk about new products. The idea is we spent a lot of time thinking about how best to structure our organization, how could it be most meaningful for our organization to grow, to create value, to be able to untap both cost and revenue synergies. And so that structure also means that when you look at our overall business that there isn't any business that is really more than 15%. So going down to our smallest, which is instruments. So we're trying to get people focused on Technology and Consumable, but certainly we'll deal with the strategic business units within it. You had mentioned imaging. Imaging had a solid quarter and grew above the technology average. It was across all regions. So it was pretty strong growth. Roberto V. Fatta - William Blair & Co. LLC: Great. And if we could just focus on implants for a second then. Can you give us a sense what the growth was for that in the quarter? And then maybe our sense is that the potential synergies that you could generate is pretty big and the implant group's maybe the biggest out all of them. Is that a fair... Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Let's start with that, because I think that is absolutely an on-point comment. We think implant is a strategic fulcrum for us. We see how it relates to both our CAD/CAM and imaging business. We believe we are well positioned with our product offerings there. We think this is a category that will continue to grow. We have certainly a strong product offering there. When you couple that with CEREC, ATLANTIS, SIMPLANT and ISUS, it's a robust offering. Rest of the world did better for us there. We were pleased to see the volume come up, pick up a bit for us there. We saw some challenges in Europe, and certainly a market that we're very excited about that we think we can do a lot more in is in the U.S. Chris, you want to make a few more comments?

Christopher T. Clark - President and Chief Operating Officer, Technologies

Management

Yes. Absolutely. Thanks, Jeff. I think I agree with all of those comments. I think this is one where both parties came with very significant and meaningful assets to come together. If you think about, again, the implant is going digital. Obviously, we have the CEREC, we have all the imaging coming from the Sirona side, we've got the ATLANTIS, SIMPLANT, ISUS coming from the Dentsply side. And I would say, I'm very pleased with how these teams have come together, both from a standpoint of longer term or middle term, if you will, as well product synergies. But in addition to that, some nearer-term opportunities in terms of lead sharing, KOL sharing, et cetera, that, again, there's a lot of excitement, a lot of movement and a lot of energy. And, again, as Jeff mentioned, we've got expectations here that this really does accelerate implant growth rate and also, frankly, helps imaging and CAD/CAM over time as well. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. When you just think about the clinical education, the engagement of our KOLs, the possibility of what we're able to do together with our technologies and in implant are pretty substantial. Roberto V. Fatta - William Blair & Co. LLC: Great. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Matt Miksic with UBS.

Vik Chopra - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Hey. Good morning, guys. This is Vik in for Matt. Thanks for taking the questions. I just had a couple over here. So can you help us understand the puts and takes on gross margin? I know you had mentioned FX in your global efficiency programs. Anything in particular on product mix, for example? And then how should we think about gross margin for 2016? And anything in particular we should keep in mind over the next three quarters? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, let me start and then I'll hand it over to Uli on that. But you need to understand that product mix and regional mix can have a significant impact in any quarter. But now that we talk about our businesses, no business being greater than 15% coming all the way down to 3%, it should take some of that lumpiness out of it. But, nevertheless, in the quarter, it can have the impact of more than 75 basis points, over 100 basis points, depending on the mix. So mix does play a role, no question about it. But the way to start to think about that is how we talk about how the consumables or the technology businesses grew in the quarter. That's the first thing you need to think about. But we're trying to also get you focused on our operating income, which we think is a better lever to understand our businesses. But go ahead. Ulrich Michel - Chief Financial Officer & Executive VP: Yes. I think, if you look at our margins in Q1, we provided you with the rec tables. I talked a little bit on the prepared remarks on the GAAP versus non-GAAP items. So, I think, what you see on the rec table is the margin a little bit over 60% reported for the first quarter after these adjustments. I did mention that the fact that Sirona has a very strong margin. We only consolidated one month of Sirona, pronounced a little bit the benefit of the merger. So that also helped the gross profit margins. They were probably a tad higher in this recording than they would have been on the complete month. I also said this on the remark to operating margins. And the other thing to think about is the exchange rates. We're now at $1.14. The first quarter was a little bit lower. So that will hurt our gross profit margins, especially on the Technology segment, literally almost all of our manufacturing is euros, Swiss franc or Swedish krona based, right? So, for the full year I would expect them to be quite a bit lower than the 60% we saw in Q1. Again, due to FX and due to the fact that we will not always only have the best month of the quarter in the numbers.

Vik Chopra - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Okay. That's very helpful. Thanks. And just one more, if I could. Can you give us a sense of some of the areas that you're monitoring that could potentially put you at either the bottom or the top end of your guidance beyond what you've seen in a very strong first quarter? Thank you. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Well, I think the way to think about it is the markets continue to hold up. We continue to see that our early wins on our revenue synergies accelerate faster than we had expected. We certainly have some tough comps ahead of us on Q2 and Q3. So how we are able to execute in those quarters will have a lot to do with the ability to go beyond. But, of course, as we were just talking about, the impact from sales and margin mix will play a big role in that.

Vik Chopra - UBS Securities LLC

Management

Great. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Operator

And we'll move next to Jon Block with Stifel. Jon Block - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Great. Thanks, guys, and good morning. Maybe, Jeff, just the first one for you, the balance sheet is, obviously, very strong. You completed the $500 million share repo. I think you're still only in and around one times levered debt-to-EBITDA. So just maybe at a high level, if you can talk about the company's ability to do acquisitions, even small ones, over the next 12 months or so, and I'm asking more from the capabilities around an integration standpoint, obviously, more so than financial. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Right. Okay. First of all, let me tell you one of the truly gems of Dentsply Sirona is our business development team. We have exceptionally capable people there that can process and digest a lot. The fact that we've been working at the global efficiency and now have a formalized integration office to deal with this puts us in better stead. We know which countries are the most stable and ones that it might be a little bit longer away to contemplate a M&A position there. But by and large, I will tell you that our strategic plan is all about continuing to do acquisitions. It's day 67 and I can tell you we are right up to speed on what the possibilities are to go out there. Of course, when you are in the midst of this type of transformational merger, you do take into consideration your ability to integrate and how quickly we'd be able to do it. So that's all part and parcel for that. But from the standpoint of myself, the management team and the board, we believe we've got a lot of room that can…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Steve Beuchaw with Morgan Stanley. Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning. Nice to have the gang back together here. First question is on synergies. Jeff, you reiterated the $125 million by year three that you laid out with Bret in the call last September. It'd be helpful just to hear at a high level how your thinking around the $125 million is evolving and then how you think about the pacing. You mentioned in a prior comment that you see the sales piece of that as a little bit more back-half loaded. Could you comment on the cost piece of that as well? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. I would say that we've already started on some of the cost. Cost is easier to identify, and you can go at it a little bit quicker. Certain corporate costs we've evaluated and come after insurance audit fees. The other thing is when you're doing country consolidations, there are overlaps with regard to software and duplication in functionality and functions. And, certainly, also from a sourcing perspective, we are at that, there are some quick wins that we've been able to talk about. But equally, I think, we've spent a lot of time with our team. And, in a moment, I'm going to have Chris talk to you a little about that, because he's been leading the way with revenue synergies, and we're really pleased to see how well the teams have come together to collaborate. Again, keep in mind it's day 67, but the type of wins that we're talking about that make sense for the dental practitioner, for our distribution partners, for Dentsply Sirona are really coming up. From a perspective of the three years, the $125 million. Again, we're not backing away from that. We're very confident about it. But to give more color at this time about what we'll map in as far as year two and year three, I don't think we're – well, I know we're not going to talk about that today, Steve. But we tried, in my prepared remarks, to really give you a lot of things that we're working on that will have a big impact. Chris?

Christopher T. Clark - President and Chief Operating Officer, Technologies

Management

Yes. I guess, Steve, I'd characterize it is follows. As I mentioned on the implants discussion that there's a lot of energy here and that's true, frankly, for all of the different work streams that we have going and these are numerous. You should think about the work streams really being both within the two segments and then across the two segments as well. You should think about them being focused on product synergies, again, being probably more a little – think of that a little bit more innovation-based or R&D-based. There are some that are probably intermediate term, some longer-term. But again, those are probably going to be on the tail-end, if you will, or at least the back half of the three-year period. Some may be a little bit before then. And a lot of energy going there, again, when we get our scientists together, when we get our marketers together, and really think about the possibilities in terms of combined solutions. On the other hand then, in the nearer term, on the commercial synergies think about, again, our sales and marketers getting together and talking about programmatically what can we do to drive more value with our customers together. And, again, you can think about that in terms of promotions, in terms of how we present ourselves to our customers, in terms of, as I mentioned earlier, KOLs, clinical education, et cetera. And so, again, there's a lot of energy, many, many work streams here. But, again, we're excited about how our people are engaging. And I think that bodes well for the trajectory and where we head, frankly, not just this year but over the three-year period and beyond. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Again, digital dentistry, clinical education, if you just,…

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Management

Hey. Thanks. I want to go back to one of the questions earlier on CAD/CAM. I understand you guys don't want to give numbers for the quarter. But I'm wondering if you could just talk a little bit about underlying market growth for that market. You've got a number of dynamics here with the Zirconia workflow and obviously, some of your competitors. So, can you maybe just talk about how you see the growth trajectory for CAD/CAM for the next couple of years? Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Tycho. Nice to hear from you. I mean, look we did give color that CAD/CAM led technology grew faster than the overall technology. And that's because single-visit dentistry is here to stay. You're hearing it more and more. In ortho, it's growing the fastest, I would say, around the globe. But you won't hear from the dental community or distribution a disagreement about chair side becoming the standard of care. We've heard more about digital impression only but that's typically in ortho. And, of course, our Zirconia, it's really a game changer. When you think about this material and the strength of it, and also the aesthetics and how it compares to others, typically, Zirconia has been something that you would only do through the lab and of course, our Cercon ht is a product that we're excited about that will deliver through the lab as well. But from a chair side perspective, you never considered it because it took two hours to sinter. Now, with the SpeedFire, it's 15 minutes. Why is this so significant? Because Zirconia is a terrific material for molars and certain bridges and actually very popular amongst dentists. And so, to be able to have this type of ceramic be available at chair side just truly opens up our addressable market. And by addressable market, we're not talking about adding 2,000 or 3,000 more dentists who are interested. We're talking about tens of thousands of dentists that will now take a look at this opportunity where they wouldn't have before. So, we believe that's just another reason why CEREC makes sense. But the other thing, frankly, is the fact that, now, everybody is talking about not just restorative, but we're talking about what you can do with CEREC on an implant and ortho side. And I have to say that we were at the AAO and in a second I'm going to ask Chris to tell you about that flavor. But you just see the appetite for digital impression and what the possibilities are for all types of applications. And I think that was a bit of the story at the AAO.

Christopher T. Clark - President and Chief Operating Officer, Technologies

Management

Absolutely, Jeff. I mean, there's no doubt that a lot of energy regarding digital at the orthodontic show. Obviously, we're there and well positioned with the Omnicam. And, again, I think that as we look at the synergies of these companies coming together, there's no doubt that similar to implants, ortho is really one of the key fulcrums and one of the key opportunities. So, we're excited about that. I think that we're well positioned for where this market is headed. And, again, I think that really, as we move forward, I would expect that to be one of the key synergies. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: I mean, it's a beautiful thing that the ortho to be the most open and also to have a clear aligner in our MTM for the anterior, which is exciting for us.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Management

Great. I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Christopher T. Clark - President and Chief Operating Officer, Technologies

Management

Thanks, Tycho.

Operator

Operator

And there are no further telephone questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any additional or closing remarks. Jeffrey T. Slovin - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you very much for joining us on our first ever first quarter conference call as Dentsply Sirona. Very excited what we have ahead of us. Our 15,000 strong are ready to go and have another strong quarter in Q2. So, I look forward to joining you in August to discuss our second quarter results. Thank you and have a great weekend.

Operator

Operator

And this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.