Patterson Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDCO) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Don Zurbay: Yeah. So we — I would say both of those factors have factored in pretty significantly to what’s happening here in the equipment market. I think it’s also why it’s been a little difficult to call exactly where we’re going. I think, again, as we move into for us — as we move into our fiscal 2025, which starts in May, I think, we feel like early in the year, we may not see it, but to your point later in the year, I think, we will see some improvement. One of the factors here, too, is just we’re a little bit tied to the innovation cycles and innovation, and we need that as well to help that dynamic. So as we move into the latter part of the calendar year, maybe the latter part of our fiscal year, we hope that’s part of the equation that we think will drive that.

Kevin Caliendo: Thanks, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from Elizabeth Anderson with Evercore. Please go ahead.

Elizabeth Anderson: Hi, guys. Thanks so much for the question. I was wondering if you could talk about the contribution of private-labeled products in the quarter, particularly Dental. And then as sort of a follow-on, how do you think about the opportunities within specialty? Is that something that you have interest in sort of expanding a presence in that market, obviously, you’ve seen very much above-market growth without that, so I’d just be curious how you’re thinking about that at this point in time?

Kevin Barry: Yeah. So on the private-labeled side, Elizabeth, I’d say, without giving the specific number, but that continues to be an area of focus for the team, especially as we’ve expanded some of the portfolio offerings in our private-label. We’ve seen positive growth there and we continue to see good adoption by our customers, and it’s a big part of, I think, how we’re growing the way we are. So I think that continues to be a real big focus for us and it’s paying some dividends in the market.

Don Zurbay: Yeah. I think on the specialty side, that’s obviously a segment of the market that we’re not significantly in. So without kind of giving away anything on our strategy, we certainly, over time, love to be in that area. It would need to be the right entry point, the right kind of transaction. So it’s hard to say as we move forward whether that’s something that will be part of our portfolio in the future.

Elizabeth Anderson: Got it. And then if we just think about the 4Q cadence, can you remind us of the impact that you guys saw in terms of incentive comps and sort of the outperformance that you had in equipment in the fourth quarter of last year?

Kevin Barry: Yeah. I mean, I think, what I maybe point you back to, Elizabeth, is kind of like to Jason’s question. I mean, we — even with that comp last year, we still saw our typical, we see some good leverage in the fourth quarter and I expect to see that again this year. There are a number of puts and takes in the OpEx arena here this fourth quarter as well. So I’d just say that we expect to see some moderating spend in the fourth quarter on some of those initiatives we talked about, and again, I see a step down as a percent of sales from where we were in Q3.

Elizabeth Anderson: Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator: Our last question today comes from Nathan Rich with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Nathan Rich: Great. Good morning and thanks for fitting me in. Just maybe a couple of clarifications at the end. I think I wanted to go back to the revised outlook for equipment and maybe just how that breaks down between core and digital. I understand core was softer in the quarter. Is that really what drove the revision to the outlook and the competitor yesterday, I think, talked about the kind of robust kind of investment plans from practices on the more traditional side. So if that’s what’s driving your revised outlook, just would be curious to get your view there?

Kevin Barry: Yeah. I think it’s fair, Nathan. Obviously, we’re talking about a slightly different timeline, I think, than our competitor is, but as we kind of narrow in here on the last couple of months of our fiscal year and we’re looking at that whole environment, we certainly could see core was a bit softer here in Q3. And as we consider Q4, we built that in for the next couple of months here.

Nathan Rich: Okay. And then, Kevin, I wonder if you could kind of give us a rough sense of maybe how the investment spend has been split between the Dental and Animal Health segments versus what might be in corporate. I guess it sounds like all else equal kind of would expect to step up in margins as a result of that spend stepping down. So just curious where we should see that show up in the P&L?

Kevin Barry: Yeah. I would say, we are not — in terms of the distribution investments we’ve made, that’s fairly split. There was a significant one on Animal Health and on Dental. So that’s fairly split. The software investments we’re making at this point are more focused on the Dental portfolio. So that’s where that one’s going to run a little bit longer than Animal Health.