Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) is a global medical device company. It operates in more than 150 countries and serves more than 72 million patients annually. Its devices have an important role in the medical industry, addressing medical issues in cardiovascular disease, spinal and musculoskeletal therapies, chronic pain, common movement disorders, urologic and gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes and other surgical procedures etc.
The Company recently released its Q2 2023 earnings and provided organic revenue growth guidance for FY23 to be between 3.5% to 4.0% (vs. 4.5% to 5.0% previously), which translates into a revenue of $31.25 billion to $31.45 billon in FY23.
Here are the updates from their Q2 2023 Performance:
- Revenue reported at $7.59B, an increase of 2.2% YoY. The overall organic sales increased by 2.2% YoY
- Cardiovascular sales were up 4.4% to $2.77B. Breaking down the segment, Cardiovascular Cardiac Rhythm & Heart Failure sales were $1.43B (up 3.5%), Structural Heart & Aortic sales were $757M (up 8.1%) and Coronary & Peripheral Vascular sales were $584M (up 1.7%).
- Medical Surgical sales were $2.07B (down 3.5%) missed consensus of $2.18B. Within Medical Surgical, Surgical Innovations sales were $1.40B (up 0.5%) driven by improvement in supply chain challenges, Respiratory, Gastrointestinal, and Renal sales were $671M (down 11.1%).
- Neuroscience sales were $2.186B (up 6.3%). Within Neuroscience, Cranial & Spinal Technologies sales were $1.081B (up 4.6%), Specialty Therapies sales were $686M (up 13.1%), and Neuromodulation sales were $419M (up 0.5%).
- Diabetes sales were $556M (up 3.1%) beat consensus of $527M driven by growth outside the US due to an improved product offering. MDT launched its 780G system in 60+ markets and the worldwide installed base has more than doubled.
- Operating Margins at 26.6% of sales declined 40 bps YoY. Operating margins declined YoY due to inflationary pressures, higher R&D expense of 8.7% of sales up 20 bps YoY, and SG&A expense was up 90 bps YoY to 33.8% of sales due to higher freight charges and utilities.
- The Company reported an EPS of $1.30 down ~2.0% YoY. The reported EPS was above street expectation with a beat of $0.02 primarily driven by FX hedges that mitigated the impact on EPS. The Company lowered its EPS guidance to $5.25-5.30 from $5.53-5.65. Management also noted that they expect a $0.36 currency headwind to EPS in FY24 vs. $0.18 in FY23
- The Company has generated $1.3B in FCF in 1H’23 and is committed to achieving 80% FCF conversion and returning a minimum of 50% of the FCF to shareholders as dividends.
Questions and Answers
CEO Geoff Martha reaffirmed confidence in his aggressive agenda to transform the company two years ago. Geoff Martha added that the company has embarked on a plan of implementing a new operating model, eliminating the bureaucracy of groups and forming more nimble operating units.
Mr. Martha acknowledged that certain external factors such as COVID recovery rates, raw material shortfalls, and Chinese procurement policy has slowed the progress however, the process of transformation is initiated to fix the issues.
An analyst asked the impact on China’s Volume Based Procedure (VBP) VBP in FY23 vs. FY24 due to new ones such as EP and neuro? The CFO confirmed that there will be an impact due to China’s VBP. This is also why 2H23 guidance was reduced by 15 – 20%. In fact, performance in China declined 9% in 2Q23 because of VBP. However, the CFO also believes that growth in China should resume in FY 2024.
Another analyst asked about the 3.5% – 4.0% revenue guidance. This is because the company only grew at 2.0% during the quarter. So what is driving the growth in 2H23 to achieve 3.5% – 4.0% for FY23? The CFO mentioned that the key growth driver for 2H23 is the introduction of new products that have been in the market for only one-quarter such as TAVR and Evolut FX.
The Company expects some growth to come from these newly introduced products. Some of the products such as Hugo are also expected to ramp up in 2H23. Additionally, the CFO also expect an easing in the supply chain bottlenecks for their products, which should improve growth in the second half of the year.