Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin Caliendo: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I guess one question I had to ask is around what you saw in July. That’s the month we don’t get to see from anybody else. I’m just wondering if trend through the quarter was consistent or not? I understand on the equipment side, what happened with ordering and timing. I’m just wondering, as you exited the quarter, did you think the demand for equipment changed at all from the beginning of the quarter or from second quarter. We’re just trying to get a read on what’s going to happen over the rest of the calendar year into next year.

Don Zurbay: Yes. No, Kevin, I appreciate the question and a good one. I — for us, I think the quarter really played out kind of in normal fashion. I don’t — I wouldn’t highlight and we probably wouldn’t say too much about intra-quarter phasing. But I guess I would say that I don’t think that there was nothing notable from my perspective on how the quarter played into the first 2 months versus the last one.

Kevin Caliendo: Okay. That’s helpful. And also just thinking about with equipment, where are you in terms of relatively speaking, in terms of backlog, whether it’s core or digital. Has that normalized? Or do you feel like the backlog in either of those are elevated or lower or normal? Any color around that would be super helpful.

Kevin Barry: I think — this is Kevin. I think what we’d say the core equipment demand continues to be strong. Those supply chains have normalized, I think we’d say, compared to what we were talking about a couple of past year or two. So the lead times aren’t as long as they used to be. So that sales cycle has shortened for us, which is good. And then for the digital categories, those sales cycles are pretty quick. We can turn around those orders and installs fairly rapidly, the consults obviously not as complicated as a new office build out. So we don’t really think about those in terms of backlog just because the cycle is pretty quick. But I’d say, like Don said, we’re seeing healthy demand in the market. Our sales teams are executing really well to help their customers find the right investment for their practice and feel good about the rest of the year.

Kevin Caliendo: Do you think that interest rates are the economic situation has held up ordering in any way, shape or form on some of the higher cost equipment in the category? I’m just — we’ve heard anecdotally this from — in the channel and from some of your peers and manufacturers. Just wondering how real you see that as being any kind of impact on the market?

Don Zurbay: Yes. I think marginally, not in a significant way, though. And again, we’re pleased with the momentum in the business, but the momentum in the market, too, in terms of — again, in terms of practices willing to invest in their business and it continues. So it’s a little more challenging, I think, but still make sense, I think, when they run the math.

Kevin Caliendo: Fantastic. Thanks so much, [Indiscernible]

Operator: And your next question comes from the line of John Block from Stifel. Your line is open.

Jon Block: Great. Thanks, guys. Good morning. I guess I’ll go back to the underlying Dental consumables, which were seemingly, I guess, the revenue highlight for the quarter. You’ve got inflation impact starting to diminish. I guess what I’m trying to go with this is, what was the approximate price contribution in fiscal ‘23 for Dental consumables? And how do you see that playing out in fiscal ‘24? I’m just trying to focus on that pricing contribution because I think we all want to arrive at how underlying volumes are trending and if the price contribution for consumables is sort of closer to normalized levels as we currently sit here today.