Norman Schwartz: Yeah. It’s a really good question. Normally it’s something like, kind of more like 49-51 when we think of a normal year and I think we’re going to see a much wider spread than that for 2024. I think it’s anybody’s guess exactly what it’s going to be, but I think, we’ll see a kind of a bigger delta between the first half and the second half.
Dan Leonard: Much wider than the 2-point spread typically?
Simon May: Yeah.
Norman Schwartz: Yes.
Simon May: I think more closer towards 4 points or 5 points spread between first half and second half then.
Dan Leonard: Appreciate that. And can you share what are your growth assumptions for process chromatography, Droplet Digital PCR and comment on whether a couple of these new product launches you talked about the Continuum and the ddSEQ, whether they’ll be launched in time to contribute to the year?
Simon May: Yes. Simon again. I think for process chromatography as I mentioned previously we’ve got these competing forces of accounts that are destocked and accounts that are still destocking, and I think the net of that is going to be negative, because the accounts that are destocking are our larger accounts. I think there’s still some ongoing uncertainty around that as we keep saying but the best read of the tea leaves that we’ve got right now is as mentioned. For Digital PCR we had a challenging Q4 for reasons that have been mentioned and that in the end made it a challenging year as well. As we look to 2024, I think we’re certainly seeing nice growth potential in Digital PCR. Again that’s predicated to some degree on recovery of the biopharma markets where we’ve been hit, we’ve got a very strong existing position there and also we’ve got some good new product launches coming out.
So the way I think about it, it’s biopharma market recovery and it’s new product introductions. They’re both when not if events and so for the full year I think we’re looking at growth in Digital PCR.
Dan Leonard: That’s helpful. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question is from Conor McNamara from RBC Capital Markets. Please ask your question.
Conor McNamara: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Just on ddPCR, can you talk about the growth in the quarter or the negative growth on equipment versus consumables, obviously, you had a tough comp on equipment placements last year. But is there — was there any consumable growth and how should we think about kind of the consumables a percentage of total ddPCR from here and where does it go?
Simon May: Yeah. I think the short answer there is again primarily driven by biopharma headwinds. We saw challenges in both instruments and consumables, I’d say with approximately equal weighting. I think we’ve got a healthy mix now overall in terms of consumables and instruments, and again, as the markets recover we think we’re going to be the beneficiaries of that.
Conor McNamara: Okay. Great. And then on capital deployment, obviously, you’ve still got some room on buybacks. Is buyback still the priority or is there anything on M&A that you’ve seen the opportunities open up or should we just think primarily about buybacks for 2024?
Norman Schwartz: Yeah. We certainly, as we mentioned, we’ve got still several $100 million authorized by the Board and we’ll continue to be opportunistic with share repurchases, but we still have a focus to kind of continue to look for kind of good complementary business opportunities to tuck-ins, things that are complementary to the business. Probably no change in our thinking around acquisitions, so it’s a kind of a two-pronged approach. Could be buybacks, could be some tuck-in acquisitions.
Conor McNamara: All right. Thanks for that.
Norman Schwartz: Combination of both.
Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Edward Chung for the closing remarks.
Edward Chung: Thank you for joining today’s call. We will be at the Citi Unplugged Life Sciences Access Day in New York at the end of February and hope to see some of you there. As always, we appreciate your interest and we look forward to connecting soon. Bye-bye.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may all disconnect.
