CONMED Corporation (NYSE:CNMD) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Todd Garner: Yes. You’re correct, Robbie. Operating margin, we expect to get SG&A leverage during that time as well. So operating margin should grow a little better than gross margin. We remain committed to that 60% level and in that kind of time frame. We’ll update more specifically as we give guidance in January. I think that’s probably the more relevant time to do any sort of refresh. But to update you on thesis and why to feel good about that is really the mix of our business, right? All the things that are growing faster and all the product lines that are getting our resources through R&D and through acquisition, all come at higher growth than the company average and higher margin than the company average. And so that mixed tailwind is real, has actually been manifesting itself and helped us offset a lot of the inflationary pressures over the last few years.

And the logic is that if the cost could stabilize, which we are seeing, then that mixed tailwind that we’ve actually been experiencing for the last few years will now start to show through in the P&L. And I would just remind you that our latest two acquisitions In2Bones and Biorez, both are north of 80% gross margins and those have been relatively small contributors to that mixed tailwind so far and are only growing in impact and contribution, so – as they grow, as the revenue part of those businesses grow. So we feel very good about the mixed tailwind of the business. Our ability to improve our cost position and have margins approach that 60% level by the end of 2025, as we’ve said before.

Robbie Marcus: Great. And I haven’t been able to check the filings yet, I don’t think it’s out. But how should we be thinking about free cash flow for this year and beyond? Where should it probably end up for 2023? And going forward what’s the right free cash flow conversion rate to think about CONMED? Thanks a lot.

Todd Garner: Yeah. We were – so for this year, we guided the year at about, we said $130 million of operating and the CapEx would be around $20 million. So somewhere in that $110 million range, I think is a reasonable expectation for 2023. And as we move forward, that should grow with earnings, right? So we would expect that just to continue to grow with the growth of the company and maintain that kind of relationship with earnings that we’ve had.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Rick Wise of Stifel.

Rick Wise: Good afternoon to you both. Maybe starting off with the U.S. Ortho business and the allograft lack of availability. Can you just expand that a little bit? And I’m curious to hear what happens to the products and the procedures that might have happened? Are they in some way shape or form delayed, so that when you get access to all the products you want, there’s a little bit of backlog there? And just how confident are you as you look ahead to the fourth quarter, Curt, that that gets resolved? And you can get back to, I think sort of mid-teens U.S. Ortho growth, right, if I’m looking back historically correctly.

Curt Hartman: Yeah. So the issue at hand, which impacted the entire tissue processing industry, was the availability of a reagent that is used in the sterile processing and the overall processing of the tissue. And there was a supply constraint on that. So everybody in the industry felt this constraint and our current understanding is that will remediate itself sometime in the fourth quarter. The question to the procedures, I don’t have a great answer on that one. I think in some cases the procedure can go to a non-allograft donation, it can go to more of a synthetic material donation, the case can be deferred and I think that’s going to be up to the doctor and the individual patient’s decision to be made. So how much of that is recoverable?