OrthoPediatrics Corp. (NASDAQ:KIDS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Fred Hite: Our gross margin does fluctuate between the quarters depending on volume, so highest in the third quarter, a little lower in the second quarter, and then down in the fourth quarter. And typically, the first quarter is our softest. Because of RSV, volume was much less than we expected in the fourth quarter, and so volume was lower. So that did bring our margins down in the fourth quarter. But even if you compared to last year, in the fourth quarter, which had that lower volume as well, the decline versus last year was probably split pretty evenly between higher set sale at cost, as well as this FIREFLY license agreement, minimum commitment. So it’s pretty even. We would expect, I think, going forward, that 2023 margin is probably similar to 2022 across the quarters, excluding probably the softness we saw in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ryan Zimmerman with BTIG.

Ryan Zimmerman: I wanted to squeeze in a few questions for me. Number one, there’s been some disruption in the spine market. As you guys know, NuVasive and Globus . Each of those have subsequent growing rod franchises. And I’m wondering kind of what your expectations are as a result of those changes in the market and what any disruption to those franchises could do for OrthoPediatrics, whether it’s new business or distributors or whatnot? Appreciate your thoughts there.

Fred Hite: I think, particularly on the NuVasive side, obviously, you have the magic rod there. And we see that product obviously being used for early onset scoliosis. We don’t see a lot of the other companies growing at least spinal drilling technology. I’m not sure that it’s available in the market just yet. But I think the disruption generally benefits us, probably benefits of several companies. It’s not something that we’ve necessarily factored into our growth for next year. But I think that there’s probably some disruption, particularly on the €“ potentially on the Nuva side that would drive us to be able to attract some different sales people, add to our selling organization in areas where they’re strong. But, again, I don’t think it’s something that we’ve contemplated as one of our major growth drivers for next year.

David Bailey: Yeah, I would just add that we don’t highlight it a lot. But we are working on our own growing rod technology. It is not going to be launched in 2023 as it’s still being developed, but we’re pretty excited about what that could be in the future as well.

Ryan Zimmerman: For MD Ortho and Pega, you made the comment that they will grow above, I guess, the corporate average, but can you help us understand kind of the growth before OrthoPediatrics acquisitions, and then after and kind of the lift that you expect as a result of integrating those into your sales force. They’re small, so they should be already growing, I think, at a relatively good rate. And so, I’d just appreciate kind of your compare and contrast maybe, what kind of impact you’re having from those two businesses and as a result of those acquisitions?

David Bailey: Neither of those businesses were effectively growing when we acquired them. So they’re pretty static. I think it’s primarily a lack of sales force focus, lack of inventory, just generally speaking, those businesses hadn’t had a lot of capital investments made behind them, despite the fact that there was a lot of demand for both of those products. So I think particularly on the Pega aside, when we have our selling organization adopt those products, as we have now for the first two quarters, surgeons were very keen to be able to call somebody that they already knew, they had spent time in the operating with, to help them work through some very difficult products. So we’ve seen growth almost €“ well, we saw growth accelerate from the minute we adopted €“ the US sales force adopted that particular product line.