The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jonathan Block: Okay, thanks. That was great, color. And just to shift right over to you, and sorry if I missed this earlier on EPS, but anything to call out regarding the cadence throughout fiscal 2024, as we think about FX being particularly violent last year and maybe, I don’t know, less leverage in fiscal 1Q due to some of those constraints that are most acute, in the current quarter. Thanks.

Brian Andrews: Hi, Jon. Yes, I guess I wouldn’t really – there’s nothing in particular that I would point out. We’re going to have a — I think we’ll start off with a good year, as Al said, and but if there’s going to be something maybe that I point out is, if I look at currency today, the biggest impact from currency is probably hitting us in Q2 versus the other quarters. But outside of that, I would say kind of, normal seasonality gating kind of phasing through the year.

Jonathan Block: Fair enough. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Our next question comes from Joanne Wuensch with Citi. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Good afternoon. This is actually Anthony Hufford [Ph], Joanne. Thanks for taking our questions. Just one from us. Are you — do you think you’re losing any potential new customers related to these capacity challenges in MyDay?

Albert White: We — we’re definitely not losing any customers. That’s for damn sure. And we’re continuing to gain new wearers. There’s no question about that. Could we be gaining even more wearers? Yes, I do. I think we’re going to permanently lose them. No, because we are going to have the product. It’s rolling into the market. I’m not talking about a dramatic change. We’re giving guidance for the year of seven to nine, and we’re talking about doing a seven in Q1. So let’s not blow this out of proportion, right? This is a –there’s a short-term, like, little thing here from a revenue perspective. But we are winning wearers at an abnormally large clip. We’re going to continue to win wearers this quarter in Q1, and we’re going to win them the rest of this year.

Unidentified Analyst: Thanks.

Operator: Our next question comes from Craig Bijou with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Craig Bijou: Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to start with a follow-up on FX, and obviously it’s been volatile. To the extent that the dollar weakens over the course of your fiscal year, I guess I just wanted to get a sense for how you guys plan to either let that fall to the bottom line, or if there is potential reinvestment of some of the benefits there.

Albert White: Hi, Craig. Yes, great question. We’ve been getting this question a lot because currency has been really moving against us year after year after year. I certainly would love to see this trend continue, but certainly if it does and the dollar were to weaken, yes, we’re going to let that currency fall through to the bottom line.

Craig Bijou: You want the recent trend to continue.

Albert White: The recent trend to continue. That’s exactly right.

Craig Bijou: Yes, understood. Then maybe for you, Al, just any update on Cyclas [Ph] and the timing or any communications or maybe even any expectations that you expect on the data front or that you’ve heard from the FDA? Just what’s the timing? What’s the thinking on Cyclas?

Albert White: Yes, I mean, no. Unfortunately, I guess I’d say no updates right now on Cyclas. We’re continuing to progress and do work. We’re selling that product in markets around the world. There continues to be positive momentum. I’m excited about it, but I don’t have any good updates to give you right now. Maybe on the next call that we have, but really nothing right now.

Craig Bijou: Okay, thanks for taking the questions, guys.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Robbie Marcus with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Robbie Marcus: Oh, great. Hello, and thanks for taking the questions. Two from me. First on free cash flow, it looks like you came in plus or minus $170 million on the year. I think that this time last year, you got it to $300 million. What drove the shortfall in 2003, and how should we think about free cash flow generation in 2024?

Brian Andrews: Hi, Robbie. Yes, we actually came in at $215 million of free cash flow. Obviously, we had a pretty large CapEx year. We ended the year at $393 million in CapEx. We had been guiding around 400, so we kind of landed right at that mark. We had the Cook termination fee that we paid in 2023, so that offset some of the free cash flow. Interest, FX, taxes were also headwinds in 2023. So that kind of really put a damper on free cash flow generation. I do expect that free cash flow will improve in 2024, probably in excess of $100 million over 2023. We still have some headwinds tied to FX, taxes and interest, probably about $50 million that are creating more of a headwind for us. But certainly, if I look at CapEx, it’s going to be elevated again in 2024, probably similar levels as we saw in 2023.

Robbie Marcus: Great. And apologies on my math. Maybe more of a strategic question here. You’ve had the past few years, double-digit organic top-line growth, yet we’re just not seeing it translate down to the bottom line for a number of reasons, whether it’s the operating margin or currency. So how do you think about your commitment to double-digit EPS growth on a reported basis? And are there any things you could do moving forward to help with the consistency? I don’t know if it’s a return to hedging or something else, but how do you think about the necessity of giving us reported EPS leverage growth?

Albert White: Sure. I think I’ll go back to a question Craig asked there with Brian. A couple of things. One is, as we talked about last year and as we gave guidance this year, we are talking about our operating income growth and constant currency. When it comes to FX, we’ve seen it move nicely in our favor, as Jeff said, or asked. Some of that’s not incorporated in the current guidance, but it’s great to have currency moving in our favor. And I’ll reiterate what Brian said, which is we’re going to continue to manage the business that way. If currency moves in our favor, that currency is going to flow through the P&L. We have great investors and a lot of them have stuck with us as we’ve worked through the last several years where currency moved against us.