Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Chris Schott: Great. Thanks so much. I just had a question on the overall volume comments you made. I think it was 1% to 2% volume growth at the low end versus 3% to 4% at the high end. Can you just elaborate on the dynamics there? So, how does that look at for companion versus livestock? And maybe as part of that, what’s implied in terms of vet visit growth this year? And is that even a relevant swing factor in any of the overall outlook for the business? Thank you.

Wetteny Joseph: Yes. So, look, I think if you look at our 2022 results, the net price contribution is about 3%. Now if you take vaccine out, that number is about 4% and companion animal would be at the higher number here, with certain products essentially above that. Now, we are very pleased to be able to take price, which typically is about 2% to 3%. And here in 2022, it was about double what we would normally do, and we still saw about 5% volume growth in 2022. So, as we look at 2023, I think you would see price with DRAXXIN impact being less than it was in €˜23 in particular, plus how we are going into price in certain products, I think you are going to expect a higher price contribution on the year, the timing of that in terms of where customers may have bought ahead of the price increases and so on.

So, you might see a little bit of a lag in terms of when you see the price picture play out, but you would see at the low end of our range, but it’s a bigger contributor. But at the upper end, it’s all additional volume. In terms of where we see clinic traffic, certainly, we have seen vet visits come down versus the peak that we saw in 2021. In the fourth quarter, visits were down about 4%, but revenue per visit was up 10% and total revenue was up 6% on the quarter. Again, continuing the trends that we see as being sustainable which is pet owners willing to pay for innovation and seeing sustainably higher revenue for pet clinics. Now, we are still very early in 2023. But as we look at data, in January, we are seeing some increases in vet visits.

Again, as we expected, we have been running above pre-pandemic levels. So, even in Q4, where visits were down 12%, they were actually still 2% above Q4 2019. And so we have been saying that, that’s the element to continue to watch. I think one month is a little bit early to call it, but we are expecting visits business to be flat to up in 2023, and we are starting to see some signals of that earlier in the year.

Operator: Our next question comes from Brandon Vazquez from William Blair.

Brandon Vazquez: Hi everyone. Thanks for taking the question. My first is just on the diagnostics side, you guys have, I believe talked about this before, but maybe can you refresh us on where you are on some of the commercial changes, I think it was in the U.S., where those are and what that might mean for growth and potentially accelerating that business into €˜23-plus? And the other is just on China. You guys had a nice rebound there. I think you mentioned a little bit of supply coming back on the market, but maybe tempered that a little bit with COVID headwinds. So, curious how those two shake out maybe 1.5 months into this first quarter? Thanks.

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