Patterson Companies Inc (PDCO) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Patterson Companies, Inc., first-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. Please note that this call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

早安，歡迎參加 Patterson Companies, Inc. 2025 財年第一季財報電話會議。請注意，此通話正在錄音。 （操作員說明）

I will now turn the call over to John Wright, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

我現在將把電話轉給投資者關係副總裁約翰·賴特 (John Wright)。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in Patterson Companies' fiscal 2025 first quarter conference call. Joining me today are Patterson President and Chief Executive Officer, Don Zurbay; and Patterson Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Barry. After a review of our results and outlook by management, we will open the call to your questions.

謝謝你，接線生。大家早安，感謝您參加 Patterson Companies 的 2025 財年第一季電話會議。今天與我一起出席的還有 Patterson 總裁兼執行長 Don Zurbay；和帕特森首席財務官凱文·巴里。管理層對我們的結果和前景進行審查後，我們將召開電話會議回答您的問題。

Before we begin, let me remind you that certain comments made during this conference call are forward-looking in nature and subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These factors, which could cause actual results to materially differ from those indicated in such forward-looking statements, are discussed in detail in our Form 10-K and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We encourage you to review this material. In addition, comments about the markets we serve, including growth rates and market shares, are based upon the company's internal analysis and estimates.

在開始之前，請允許我提醒您，本次電話會議中發表的某些評論本質上具有前瞻性，並存在一定的風險和不確定性。這些因素可能導致實際結果與此類前瞻性陳述中所示的結果有重大差異，我們在 10-K 表格和向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中詳細討論了這些因素。我們鼓勵您查看此資料。此外，對我們所服務的市場的評論，包括成長率和市場份額，都是基於公司的內部分析和估計。

The content of this conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live broadcast, August 28, 2024. Patterson undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call.

本次電話會議的內容包含時間敏感信息，僅截至直播日期（2024 年 8 月 28 日）準確。通話的。

Also, a financial slide presentation can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at pattersoncompanies.com. Please note that in this morning's conference call, we will reference our adjusted results for the first quarter of fiscal '25. The reconciliation tables in our press release are provided to adjust various reported GAAP measures for the impact of deal amortization and interest rate swap along with any tax-related effect of these items.

此外，您也可以在我們網站 pattersoncompanies.com 的投資者關係部分找到財務幻燈片簡報。請注意，在今天早上的電話會議中，我們將參考 25 財年第一季的調整後業績。我們新聞稿中的調節表用於調整各種報告的公認會計原則措施，以了解交易攤銷和利率掉期的影響以及這些項目的任何與稅收相關的影響。

We will also discuss free cash flow as defined in our earnings release, which is a non-GAAP measure and use the term internal sales to represent net sales adjusted to exclude the impact of foreign currency and the net impact of an interest rate swap. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay starting today at 10:00 AM Central Time for a period of one week.

我們還將討論收益發布中定義的自由現金流，這是一種非公認會計準則衡量標準，並使用內部銷售額一詞來表示調整後的淨銷售額，以排除外幣的影響和利率掉期的淨影響。這些非公認會計原則衡量標準無意取代我們的公認會計原則結果。此通話正在錄音，並可在中部時間今天上午 10 點重播，為期一周。

Now I'd like to hand the call over to Don Zurbay.

現在我想把電話轉給唐·祖爾貝 (Don Zurbay)。

Thanks, John, and welcome, everyone, to Patterson's Fiscal 2025 first-quarter conference call. I will begin my remarks today by discussing the drivers of our consolidated results, including a detailed look at the factors that contributed to a slower start to the year than we had anticipated. And we'll then review the financial performance of each of our segments.

謝謝 John，歡迎大家參加 Patterson 的 2025 財年第一季電話會議。我今天的演講將首先討論我們綜合業績的驅動因素，包括詳細研究導致今年開局慢於我們預期的因素。然後我們將審查每個部門的財務表現。

Patterson Companies first quarter fiscal year 2025 results declined on a year-over-year basis, reflecting the dynamic and evolving macro environment in which we and our customers operate marked by persistent inflation, elevated interest rates and general uncertainty. In addition to these headwinds, a few additional factors caused our financial results to fall short of our own expectations for the first quarter.

Patterson Companies 2025 財年第一季業績年減，反映出我們和我們的客戶所處的動態且不斷變化的宏觀環境，其特點是持續的通貨膨脹、利率上升和普遍的不確定性。除了這些不利因素之外，還有一些其他因素導致我們第一季的財務表現未達到我們自己的預期。

First was lower-than-anticipated financial performance in our companion animal business. While part of the decline in sales year-over-year is driven by the macroeconomic environment that existed during the first quarter, we also continue to make strategic decisions to focus less on top line sales and more on profitable business in the companion animal segment. As a result, these decisions impacted our ability to earn rebate incentives based on sales and also had a corresponding margin impact during the quarter.

首先是我們的伴侶動物業務的財務表現低於預期。雖然銷售額年減的部分原因是第一季存在的宏觀經濟環境，但我們也持續做出策略決策，減少對營收的關注，而更專注於伴侶動物領域的獲利業務。因此，這些決定影響了我們根據銷售額賺取回扣激勵的能力，並對本季的利潤率產生了相應的影響。

Second, the timing of certain corporate expenses, including an unexpected increase in medical claims, further impacted Patterson's first quarter results. As a self-insured entity, these anomalies can certainly occur at a given point in time, and we expect our medical insurance costs to normalize over the remainder of the fiscal year.

其次，某些公司支出的時間安排，包括醫療索賠的意外增加，進一步影響了帕特森第一季的業績。作為一個自我保險實體，這些異常情況肯定會在特定時間點發生，我們預計我們的醫療保險成本將在本財年剩餘時間內恢復正常。

And finally and most significantly was a greater-than-anticipated impact within our value-added services category in our dental segment caused by the Change Healthcare cybersecurity attack that occurred in Patterson's Q4 of fiscal 2024. A large portion of our dental software customers, whether those using Eaglesoft, Fuse or Dolphin, utilize a fee-based integration that we have with Change Healthcare to submit their claims for insurance reimbursement.

最後也是最重要的是，2024 財年第四季 Patterson 發生的 Change Healthcare 網路安全攻擊對我們牙科領域的增值服務類別產生了超出預期的影響。的收費整合來提交保險報銷索賠。

When the cyber attack on Change Healthcare occurred, the outage completely prohibited these dental customers from being able to submit insurance claims for processing, causing both disruption and a lack of reimbursement by the insurance providers. During the time of the outage, Patterson was unable to charge the fees it normally does to these customers for this service.

當 Change Healthcare 發生網路攻擊時，服務中斷完全導致這些牙科客戶無法提交保險索賠進行處理，導致保險公司中斷和無法報銷。在中斷期間，Patterson 無法像平常那樣向這些客戶收取此項服務的費用。

While we quickly identified an alternative solution for our dental software customers that were impacted from the cyber attack, the transition time to this new solution is taking longer than expected. In addition, as our software and e-services teams work hand-in-hand with their customers to navigate the disruption, those same teams were unable to sell the other services that help make up the entire value-added services category.

雖然我們很快就為受到網路攻擊影響的牙科軟體客戶找到了替代解決方案，但向這項新解決方案的過渡時間比預期要長。此外，當我們的軟體和電子服務團隊與客戶攜手應對顛覆時，這些團隊無法銷售有助於構成整個加值服務類別的其他服務。

Both the transition time to a new provider and inability to sell new products and services during this transition time were greater than our initial expectations for the first quarter. Ultimately, for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, we delivered adjusted EPS of $0.24. On a year-over-year basis, we estimate this includes a negative impact of approximately $0.06 per diluted share related to the previously mentioned cyber attack on Change Healthcare.

向新提供者的過渡時間以及過渡期間無法銷售新產品和服務的情況都超出了我們對第一季的最初預期。最終，2025 財年第一季的調整後每股收益為 0.24 美元。與去年同期相比，我們估計這包括與先前提到的針對 Change Healthcare 的網路攻擊相關的稀釋每股約 0.06 美元的負面影響。

In light of these unanticipated factors, we are taking dedicated cost and management actions to position Patterson to deliver on our financial plan for fiscal 2025. On the cost side, we are implementing cost and expense discipline measures across the entire organization in keeping with our core strategic objectives.

鑑於這些意外因素，我們正在採取專門的成本和管理行動，以使 Patterson 能夠實現我們 2025 財年的財務計劃。戰略目標。

There are a variety of levers we can and intend to pull operationally. That said, we will continue to prioritize investments in our long-term growth and margin enhancement initiatives to improve profitability.

我們可以並且打算在操作上使用多種槓桿。也就是說，我們將繼續優先投資於長期成長和利潤提升計劃，以提高獲利能力。

On the management side, we see additional opportunities to accelerate demand-generating activities, including strategic promotions and incentive programs as well as pricing strategies and promotional effectiveness.

在管理方面，我們看到了加速需求產生活動的更多機會，包括策略促銷和激勵計劃以及定價策略和促銷有效性。

While the quarter did not meet our expectations, we believe the costs were unique to the quarter. And we remain highly confident in the underlying strength of our business, our competitive positioning and our investments in core strategic growth opportunities. Today, with strategies underway to come back to factors I just discussed, we are reaffirming our fiscal 2025 earnings guidance.

雖然該季度沒有達到我們的預期，但我們認為成本是該季度獨有的。我們對我們業務的潛在實力、我們的競爭地位以及我們對核心策略成長機會的投資仍然充滿信心。今天，我們正在製定策略來回到我剛才討論的因素，我們重申我們的 2025 財年獲利指引。

Looking forward, the focus areas for the remainder of the fiscal year are in line with our long-term strategy, which, as a reminder, is designed to achieve four strategic objectives. First, drive revenue growth above the current end market growth rates. Second, build upon the progress we've made to enhance our margin performance. Third, evolve our products, channels and services to best serve the customers in our end markets. And fourth, improve efficiency and optimization.

展望未來，本財年剩餘時間的重點領域符合我們的長期策略，提醒您的是，該策略旨在實現四個策略目標。首先，推動營收成長高於目前終端市場成長率。其次，在我們已經取得的進展的基礎上，提高我們的利潤表現。第三，發展我們的產品、通路和服務，以最好地服務終端市場的客戶。第四，提高效率和優化。

Now I'll provide more detail on the financial performance in each of our two business segments during fiscal 2025 first quarter as compared to the similar period last year. Let's start with dental. In dental, internal sales declined 3% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2024 primarily due to a 2% year-over-year decrease in dental consumables.

現在，我將提供 2025 財年第一季我們兩個業務部門與去年同期相比的財務業績的更多詳細資訊。我們先從牙科開始吧。在牙科領域，內部銷售額較 2024 財年第一季下降 3%，主要是因為牙科耗材年減 2%。

Excluding the deflationary impact of certain infection control products, internal sales of dental consumables decreased 1.7% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2024. We expect the year-over-year impact of deflationary pressure in our infection control product portfolio to be negligible going forward. Part of the reason for the decline in dental consumables relates to a tougher macroeconomic environment than a year ago but also other market-driven events that occurred last Q1 that did not occur this period.

排除某些感染控制產品的通貨緊縮影響，牙科耗材的內部銷售額與 2024 財年第一季相比下降了 1.7%。牙科耗材下降的部分原因與比一年前更嚴峻的宏觀經濟環境有關，同時也與上一季發生但本季沒有發生的其他市場驅動事件有關。

Additionally, this category also experienced a greater-than-anticipated impact due to the Change Healthcare cyber attack as customers who could not easily submit claims for insurance reimbursement also ordered fewer consumables from us during this period. With respect to these customers, we have identified who they are and are working with our sales teams to ensure that they return to their previous ordering levels with us.

此外，由於 Change Healthcare 網路攻擊，這個類別也受到了超出預期的影響，因為無法輕鬆提交保險報銷索賠的客戶在此期間向我們訂購的消耗品也減少了。對於這些客戶，我們已經確定了他們的身份，並正在與我們的銷售團隊合作，以確保他們恢復到之前向我們訂購的水平。

Turning to dental equipment. Internal sales decreased about 2% year over year. We believe this decrease from last year reflects the current macroeconomic environment. We also continue to face challenging year-over-year comparisons for our core equipment and CAD/CAM categories, which each declined in double digits, partially offset by double-digit gains in our digital category, underscoring the inherently lumpy nature of the equipment business.

轉向牙科設備。內部銷售額較去年同期下降約2%。我們認為，與去年相比的下降反映了當前的宏觀經濟環境。我們的核心設備和CAD/CAM 類別也繼續面臨著具有挑戰性的同比比較，這些類別均出現兩位數下降，但部分被我們數字類別的兩位數增長所抵消，突顯了設備業務固有的不穩定性質。

As mentioned, the first quarter was a challenging time in the economic cycle throughout the dental market. Lower overall consumer spending and higher interest rates during the quarter led to moderated levels of equipment purchases by dental practice.

如前所述，第一季是整個牙科市場經濟週期中充滿挑戰的時期。本季整體消費者支出下降和利率上升導致牙科診所的設備採購水準放緩。

Despite this, Patterson's leading value proposition in dental equipment and technology remains unchanged. The market has long recognized and rewarded Patterson for our unique ability to support customers through the entire equipment life cycle, from financing and purchase to installation, training, maintenance and repairs. And we are committed to ensuring we continue to earn that reputation.

儘管如此，帕特森在牙科設備和技術方面的領先價值主張仍然沒有改變。 Patterson 長期以來在整個設備生命週期（從融資和購買到安裝、培訓、維護和維修）為客戶提供支援的獨特能力得到了市場的認可和獎勵。我們致力於確保我們繼續贏得這項聲譽。

Finally, internal sales in our dental value-added service category declined nearly 7% in the first quarter compared to the prior year period primarily due to the Change Healthcare cybersecurity attack. That setback does not change our view that software and value-added services hold meaningful opportunity for long-term growth. And we're investing to enhance our existing products, drive productivity gains and cater to evolving customer preferences.

最後，我們的牙科增值服務類別的內部銷售額在第一季與去年同期相比下降了近 7%，這主要是由於 Change Healthcare 網路安全攻擊。這項挫折並沒有改變我們的觀點，即軟體和增值服務為長期成長提供了有意義的機會。我們正在投資增強現有產品、提高生產力並滿足不斷變化的客戶偏好。

To that end, I'm pleased to highlight two developments that underscore our commitment to innovation and enhancing our value proposition in this area. We recently announced the successful integration of Second Opinion, Pearl's AI pathology detection feature set, directly into Patterson's Eaglesoft software.

為此，我很高興地強調兩項發展，它們強調了我們對創新的承諾，並增強了我們在該領域的價值主張。我們最近宣布成功將 Pearl 的人工智慧病理檢測功能集 Second Opinion 直接整合到 Patterson 的 Eaglesoft 軟體中。

This new integration within Eaglesoft advanced imaging adds Pearl's Second Opinion real-time clinical detections directly to X-rays captured and presented in Eaglesoft. This feature set can improve diagnostic accuracy, streamline clinical workflows and enhance patient care by providing advanced AI-driven insights to dentists.

Eaglesoft 高階成像中的這項新整合將 Pearl 的第二意見即時臨床檢測直接添加到 Eaglesoft 中捕獲和呈現的 X 光中。該功能集可以透過向牙醫提供先進的人工智慧驅動的見解來提高診斷準確性、簡化臨床工作流程並增強患者護理。

We also announced new integration features within Weave and the Patterson dental practice management software solutions Fuse, Eaglesoft, and Dolphin. Weave is a leading client engagement platform for dental practice management. And these new integrations are now the deepest, most complete data exchange available in the market.

我們還宣布了 Weave 和 Patterson 牙科診所管理軟體解決方案 Fuse、Eaglesoft 和 Dolphin 中的新整合功能。 Weave 是領先的牙醫診所管理客戶參與平台。這些新的整合現在是市場上最深入、最完整的資料交換。

With the ability to read and write patient data, appointments and confirmations through ledger information to facilitate payment collection, these new integrations illustrate how Patterson is equipping dental practices with the tools they need to modernize their practices, enhance their patient experience and ultimately grow their business.

這些新的整合能夠透過帳本資訊讀取和寫入患者資料、預約和確認，以促進付款收集，這些新的整合說明了Patterson 如何為牙科診所配備所需的工具，以實現診所現代化、增強患者體驗並最終發展業務。

We are confident that continuing to invest in and promote all of our dental practice management solutions to maximize our value-added services offerings will deepen our comprehensive value proposition to our customers.

我們相信，繼續投資和推廣我們所有的牙科診所管理解決方案，以最大限度地提高我們的增值服務產品，將深化我們對客戶的全面價值主張。

Now let's move on to our animal health segment. Internal sales in the animal health segment declined approximately 3% year over year as low single-digit growth in our production animal business was offset by some market softness in the companion animal division.

現在讓我們繼續我們的動物健康部分。動物保健部門的內部銷售額年減約 3%，因為我們的生產動物業務的低個位數成長被伴侶動物部門的市場疲軟所抵消。

In companion animal for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, year-over-year internal sales declined by low single digits. This was driven in part by the moderation in veterinary clinic traffic and by our intentional strategic decisions to focus on more profitable business that modestly reduced our top line growth.

2025 財年第一季伴侶動物的內部銷售額年減了較低的個位數。這在一定程度上是由於獸醫診所流量的放緩以及我們有意專注於利潤更高的業務的策略決策所推動的，這略微降低了我們的營收成長。

Deliberately choosing to walk away from certain low-margin revenue opportunities had a corresponding impact on our ability to achieve certain sales rebate incentives during the quarter. It's important to note that we have initiatives underway to reinvigorate our top line growth, which, combined with our other margin enhancement initiatives, are expected to also improve our margin profile.

故意選擇放棄某些低利潤收入機會，對我們在本季實現某些銷售回饋激勵的能力產生了相應的影響。值得注意的是，我們正在採取一些措施來重振我們的營收成長，這些措施與我們其他的利潤提升措施相結合，預計也將改善我們的利潤狀況。

Market data indicates that veterinary practices are adapting to the current environment, finding opportunities to drive spending in areas that pet parents value the most to drive growth from fewer visits. Our focus continues to be on aligning our value proposition with these customers' evolving focus while positioning our teams to execute on innovative new products coming to market.

市場數據表明，獸醫實踐正在適應當前環境，尋找機會推動寵物父母最重視的領域的支出，從而透過減少訪問次數來推動成長。我們的重點仍然是使我們的價值主張與這些客戶不斷變化的關注點保持一致，同時定位我們的團隊來執行即將上市的創新新產品。

Our production animal business continued its strong momentum and generated low single-digit internal sales growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. We see our strong performance in production animal as continued validation of the strength and effectiveness of our omnichannel presence, highly tailored distribution strategy and comprehensive offering across animal species.

我們的生產動物業務持續保持強勁勢頭，並在2025 財年第一季實現了低個位數的內部銷售成長。以及高度客製化的分銷策略得到了持續驗證以及跨動物物種的全面產品。

Our team's ability to execute these strategies and provide value-enhancing solutions tailored to our customer needs has enabled us to counter broad macroeconomic pressure, win new business and outperform the broader production animal market.

我們的團隊執行這些策略並根據客戶需求提供增值解決方案的能力使我們能夠應對廣泛的宏觀經濟壓力，贏得新業務並超越更廣泛的生產性動物市場。

Across the animal health segment, our value-added services category delivered strong high single-digit internal sales growth in the first quarter. This robust performance was driven in part by the success of Turnkey, a market-leading enterprise resource planning system for cattle producers, that provides end-to-end solutions to help streamline their operations and enhance their efficiency.

在動物保健領域，我們的增值服務類別在第一季實現了強勁的個位數內部銷售成長。這種強勁的業績在一定程度上得益於Turnkey的成功，Turnkey是面向養牛生產者的市場領先的企業資源規劃系統，提供端到端解決方案，幫助簡化營運並提高效率。

The Turnkey platform has continued to resonate strongly with our customer base and illustrates the strong demand for our comprehensive suite of software solutions and new services.

交鑰匙平台繼續與我們的客戶群產生強烈共鳴，並表明對我們全面的軟體解決方案和新服務套件的強烈需求。

Just as in our dental segment, our value-added services are proving to be a key differentiator for Patterson in the animal health market, enabling us to support the full life cycle of equipment for our customers.

正如我們的牙科領域一樣，事實證明，我們的增值服務是 Patterson 在動物保健市場中的關鍵差異化因素，使我們能夠為客戶的設備的整個生命週期提供支援。

Now I'll turn the call over to Kevin Barry to provide more detail on our financial results.

現在我將把電話轉給凱文·巴里 (Kevin Barry)，以提供有關我們財務業績的更多詳細資訊。

Thank you, Don, and good morning, everyone. In my prepared remarks this morning, I will cover the financial results for our first quarter of fiscal '25, which ended on July 27, 2024, and then conclude with a few comments on our outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year.

謝謝你，唐，大家早安。在今天早上準備好的發言中，我將介紹截至 2024 年 7 月 27 日結束的 25 財年第一季的財務業績，然後對我們對本財年剩餘時間的前景發表一些評論。

So let's begin by covering the results for our first quarter of fiscal '25. Consolidated reported sales for Patterson Companies in our fiscal '25 first quarter were $1.54 billion, a decrease of 2.2% over the first quarter of one year ago. Internal sales, which are adjusted for the effects of currency translation and the net impact of an interest rate swap, decreased 2.8% compared to the same period last year.

讓我們先介紹一下 25 財年第一季的業績。帕特森 25 財年第一季的綜合銷售額為 15.4 億美元，比一年前第一季下降 2.2%。經貨幣換算影響和利率掉期淨影響調整後的內部銷售與去年同期相比下降了 2.8%。

Gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal '25 was 20.3%, an increase of 10 basis points compared to the prior year period. We also provide the financial metric of adjusted gross margin, which is a non-GAAP financial measure that adjusts gross margin for the impact of the mark-to-market accounting related to our equipment financing portfolio and the associated interest rate swap hedging instruments.

2025 財年第一季毛利率為 20.3%，較上年同期成長 10 個基點。我們還提供調整後毛利率的財務指標，這是一種非公認會計原則財務指標，根據與我們的設備融資組合和相關利率掉期對沖工具相關的按市值計價會計的影響來調整毛利率。

The accounting impact of the mark-to-market adjustment affects our total company gross margin but not the gross margin within our business segment. As previously mentioned, the net impact of interest rate fluctuations between the swap and the equipment financing portfolio has a minimal impact on net income.

以市價調整的會計影響會影響我們公司的總毛利率，但不會影響我們業務部門內的毛利率。如前所述，掉期和設備融資組合之間的利率波動對淨利潤的影響很小。

For the first quarter of fiscal '25, our adjusted gross margin was 20.1%, a decrease of 50 basis points compared to the year-ago period. The year-over-year decline in gross margin primarily due to the revenue and profit shortfall in our dental segment related to the cybersecurity attack on Change Healthcare.

25財年第一季，我們調整後的毛利率為20.1%，比去年同期下降了50個基點。毛利率年減主要是由於與 Change Healthcare 遭受網路安全攻擊相關的牙科業務收入和利潤短缺。

While we have migrated a large percentage of our customers to a new claims processing platform, the transition has taken longer than we anticipated. As Don mentioned, the disruption related to the cyber attack on Change Healthcare has impacted the operations of our dental customers and in some cases, their flow of business with Patterson as they work to reestablish their cash flow in a new claims processing software.

雖然我們已將大部分客戶遷移到新的索賠處理平台，但過渡所需的時間比我們預期的要長。正如Don 所提到的，與Change Healthcare 網路攻擊相關的中斷影響了我們牙科客戶的運營，在某些情況下，還影響了他們與Patterson 的業務流程，因為他們正在努力在新的索賠處理軟體中重建現金流。

Our teams continue to work diligently to assist our customers with their practice operations and to offer the most reliable and effective solutions to help them manage their practices most effectively and productively. We are focused on ensuring that these customers return to their previous ordering levels with us and replace a high percentage of this revenue stream to Patterson.

我們的團隊繼續努力工作，協助客戶進行實踐操作，並提供最可靠、最有效的解決方案，幫助他們最有效、最有效率地管理實務。我們致力於確保這些客戶恢復到先前的訂購水平，並將大部分收入流轉給帕特森。

Adjusted operating expenses as a percentage of net sales for the first quarter of fiscal '25 were 17.8% and unfavorable by 70 basis points compared to the first quarter of fiscal '24. In the first quarter of fiscal '25, we had a higher level of investment spending in our software business as well as higher medical expenses that impacted our P&L in comparison to the first quarter of one year ago that would account for the majority of the unfavorable comparison in the prior year.

25 財年第一季調整後營運費用佔淨銷售額的百分比為 17.8%，與 24 財年第一季相比下降了 70 個基點。在25 財年第一季度，我們的軟體業務投資支出水平較高，醫療費用也較高，與一年前第一季相比，這對我們的損益產生了影響，這將是不利因素的主要原因與前一年的比較。

In the first quarter of fiscal '25, our consolidated adjusted operating margin was 2.3%, a decrease of 110 basis points compared to the first quarter of last year. The year-over-year decline in consolidated adjusted operating margin in the first quarter is related to a number of items. The primary driver was the impact from the sales declines in margin-accretive categories related to the Change Healthcare issue. Additionally, operating margin was unfavorably impacted by operating expense deleverage in items previously mentioned.

在2025財年第一季度，我們的綜合調整後營業利潤率為2.3%，比去年第一季下降了110個基點。第一季合併調整後營業利潤率年減與多個因素有關。主要驅動因素是與變革醫療保健問題相關的利潤成長類別銷售下降的影響。此外，營業利潤率也受到前面提到的項目的營業費用去槓桿化的不利影響。

Our adjusted tax rate for the first quarter of fiscal '25 was 23.7%, an increase of 20 basis points compared to the prior year period. Reported net income attributable to Patterson Companies, Inc., for the first quarter of fiscal '25 was $13.7 million or $0.15 per diluted share. This compares to reported net income in the first quarter of last year of $31.2 million or $0.32 per diluted share.

我們25財年第一季的調整後稅率為23.7%，比去年同期增加了20個基點。 2025 財年第一季歸屬於 Patterson Companies, Inc. 的報告淨利為 1,370 萬美元，或攤薄後每股收益 0.15 美元。相比之下，去年第一季報告的淨利潤為 3,120 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.32 美元。

Adjusted net income attributable to Patterson Companies, Inc., in the first quarter of fiscal '25 was $21.0 million or $0.24 per diluted share. This compares to $38.6 million or $0.40 per diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal '24.

2025 財年第一季調整後歸屬於 Patterson Companies, Inc. 的淨利為 2,100 萬美元，或攤薄後每股收益 0.24 美元。相比之下，2024 年第一季的稀釋後每股收益為 3,860 萬美元，即每股 0.40 美元。

The year-over-year decrease in reported and adjusted net income attributable to Patterson Companies, Inc., in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 is related to lower retail sales and operating margins in both business segments and the continued negative impact of the cybersecurity attack on Change Healthcare within the value-added services category of the dental segment.

2025 財年第一季 Patterson Companies, Inc. 報告和調整後淨利潤同比下降，與兩個業務部門的零售額和營業利潤率下降以及網絡安全攻擊的持續負面影響有關改變醫療保健在牙科領域的增值服務類別中。

We estimate that both reported and adjusted net income in the fiscal 2025 first quarter were negatively impacted by approximately $0.06 per diluted share compared to the prior period due to the cybersecurity attack on Change Healthcare.

我們估計，由於 Change Healthcare 受到網路安全攻擊，與上一時期相比，2025 財年第一季的報告和調整後淨利潤均受到每股攤薄後約 0.06 美元的負面影響。

Now let's turn to our business segments, starting with our dental. In the first quarter of fiscal '25, internal sales for our dental business decreased 2.8% compared to the first quarter of fiscal '24.

現在讓我們轉向我們的業務部門，從牙科開始。在 25 財年第一季度，我們牙科業務的內部銷售額與 24 財年第一季相比下降了 2.8%。

Internal sales of dental consumables in the fiscal first quarter decreased 2.1% compared to one year ago and were slightly impacted by continued price deflation of certain infection control products. Internal sales of non-infection control products decreased 1.7% in the first quarter of fiscal '25 compared to the year-ago period.

第一財季牙科耗材的內部銷售額較上年同期下降 2.1%，並受到某些感染控制產品持續價格下跌的輕微影響。 25 財年第一季非感染控制產品的內部銷售額年減 1.7%。

In the first quarter of fiscal '25, internal sales of dental equipment decreased 2.4% compared to one year ago. As Don mentioned, sales in the equipment category can vary from quarter-to-quarter, and these dynamics apply to each of the specific product categories as well.

25財年第一季，牙科設備的內部銷售額與去年同期相比下降了2.4%。正如唐所提到的，設備類別的銷售額每季都會有所不同，這些動態也適用於每個特定的產品類別。

This quarter, the digital x-ray category posted positive year-over-year sales growth, offset by a decline in core equipment and CAD/CAM sales compared to the prior year period. Internal sales of value-added services in the first quarter of fiscal '25 decreased 6.7% over the prior year period primarily due to the negative impact of the cybersecurity attack on Change Healthcare.

本季度，數位 X 光類別的銷售額較去年同期出現正成長，但被核心設備和 CAD/CAM 銷售額年減所抵銷。 25財年第一季加值服務內部銷售額年減6.7%，主要是網路安全攻擊對Change Healthcare造成的負面影響。

The adjusted operating margin in dental was 5.5% in the first quarter of fiscal '25, which represents a 190 basis point decrease over the prior year period. This year-over-year operating margin shortfall reflects the continued impact of the cyber attack on Change Healthcare as well as investments in our software business and the timing of certain expenses.

2025 財年第一季牙科業務調整後營業利益率為 5.5%，較上年同期下降 190 個基點。營業利潤率同比下降反映了網路攻擊對 Change Healthcare 的持續影響以及我們對軟體業務的投資和某些費用的時間安排。

Now let's move to our animal health side. In the first quarter of fiscal '25, internal sales for our animal health business decreased 2.8% compared to the first quarter of fiscal '24. Internal sales for our production animal business in the first -- fiscal first quarter increased by low single digits compared to the prior year period.

現在讓我們轉向動物健康方面。在 25 財年第一季度，我們的動物保健業務的內部銷售額與 24 財年第一季相比下降了 2.8%。第一財季我們生產動物業務的內部銷售額與去年同期相比成長了較低的個位數。

Our production animal team continues to execute well in the market with our multichannel approach and deep relationship with production animal customers. Internal sales for our companion animal business in the first quarter of fiscal '25 decreased by mid-single digits compared to the prior year period. While vet visits in the companion animal market are down slightly year over year, our revenue shortfall is primarily related to our own strategic decisions and focus on more profitable business.

我們的生產動物團隊憑藉我們的多通路方法以及與生產動物客戶的深厚關係，繼續在市場上表現出色。 25 財年第一季度，我們的伴侶動物業務的內部銷售額與去年同期相比下降了中個位數。雖然伴侶動物市場的獸醫就診量比去年同期略有下降，但我們的收入短缺主要與我們自己的策略決策和專注於利潤更高的業務有關。

The adjusted operating margin in our animal health segment was 3.7% in the fiscal '25 first quarter, a decrease of 30 basis points from the prior year period. This decline compared to the prior year is primarily related to the top line shortfall and the resulting impact on rebate accruals. I'm confident in the animal health team and their ability to execute on innovative new products coming to market and continuing to adapt their business model to maintain and improve profitability.

2025 財年第一季度，我們的動物保健業務調整後營業利潤率為 3.7%，比去年同期下降 30 個基點。與前一年相比，這一下降主要與收入缺口及其對應計回扣的影響有關。我對動物保健團隊及其執行即將上市的創新新產品的能力充滿信心，並繼續調整其業務模式以維持和提高盈利能力。

Now let me cover cash flow and balance sheet items. During the first three months of fiscal '25, our free cash flow improved by $1.8 million compared to the same period one year ago. This was primarily due to a decreased level of capital spending in the first three months of fiscal '25 compared to the year-ago period as we lapped the investments we made in early fiscal '24 to increase our distribution footprint in Canada and the UK.

現在讓我介紹一下現金流量和資產負債表項目。在 25 財年的前三個月，我們的自由現金流比一年前同期增加了 180 萬美元。這主要是由於 25 財年前三個月的資本支出水準與去年同期相比有所下降，因為我們放棄了 24 財年初期為增加在加拿大和英國的分銷足跡而進行的投資。

Turning now to capital allocation. We continue to execute on our strategy to return cash to shareholders. In the first quarter of fiscal '25, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.26 per diluted share, which was then paid at the beginning of the second quarter of fiscal '25.

現在轉向資本配置。我們繼續執行向股東返還現金的策略。在 25 財年第一季度，我們宣布季度現金股利為稀釋後每股 0.26 美元，然後在 25 財年第二季初支付。

We also repurchased $50 million of shares during the first quarter of fiscal '25, thereby returning a total of $73.3 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

我們也在 25 財年第一季回購了 5,000 萬美元的股票，從而透過股利和股票回購向股東總共返還了 7,330 萬美元。

And to conclude with our outlook for the remainder of fiscal '25, today, we are reaffirming our fiscal '25 GAAP earnings guidance range of $2 to $2.10 per diluted share and our adjusted earnings guidance range of $2.33 to $2.43 per diluted share.

今天，為了總結我們對 25 財年剩餘時間的展望，我們重申 25 財年 GAAP 稀釋後每股盈利指導範圍為 2 美元至 2.10 美元，調整後盈利指導範圍為稀釋後每股 2.33 美元至 2.43 美元。

As Don mentioned, we are initiating targeted operational actions to both accelerate sales and decrease our costs for the remainder of the fiscal year and deliver on our financial commitments.

正如唐所提到的，我們正在啟動有針對性的營運行動，以加快銷售並降低本財年剩餘時間的成本，並兌現我們的財務承諾。

Now I will turn the call back over to Don for some additional comments.

現在我將把電話轉回給唐，徵求一些補充意見。

Thanks, Kevin. Before we open it up for Q&A, I want to highlight that on August 12, we announced the release of our 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report, which focuses on our effort as an organization to promote an inclusive workplace, reduce the company's carbon footprint and execute a DE&I strategy in alignment to Patterson's values. I want to thank the entire Patterson team for their continued hard work and commitment to serving our customers.

謝謝，凱文。在我們開始問答之前，我想強調一下，8 月 12 日，我們宣布發布 2024 年企業責任報告，該報告重點關注我們作為一個組織在促進包容性工作場所、減少公司碳足跡和執行DE&I 戰略符合Patterson的價值觀。我要感謝整個帕特森團隊的持續辛勤工作和對服務客戶的承諾。

Despite challenges faced in our first quarter, we maintain a strategic focus on supporting our customers with a deep and differentiated value proposition they expect from Patterson. Looking forward, we are confident that continued execution of our proven strategy combined with Patterson's strong position in the resilient end markets in which we operate make us well positioned to drive improved performance over the long term.

儘管我們在第一季面臨挑戰，但我們的策略重點仍然是為客戶提供他們期望 Patterson 提供的深入且差異化的價值主張。展望未來，我們相信，繼續執行我們行之有效的策略，加上帕特森在我們經營的彈性終端市場中的強大地位，使我們能夠在長期內推動業績的改善。

That concludes our prepared remarks. Kevin and I will be glad to take questions. Operator, please open the line.

我們準備好的演講到此結束。凱文和我很樂意回答問題。接線員，請開通線路。

(Operator Instructions) Jon Block, Stifel.

（操作員說明）Jon Block，Stifel。

Great. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Great. Don, it seems like there were a lot of moving parts in the quarter for the company with Change and some of your commentary around companion animals. So can you spend a little bit more time on the end markets for July and maybe even August, notably for dental?

偉大的。謝謝。早安，夥計們。偉大的。唐，該公司在本季似乎有很多變化，以及您對伴侶動物的一些評論。那麼，您能否在七月甚至八月的終端市場上多花一點時間，尤其是牙科市場？

I just think the magnitude of the miss would suggest poor trends exiting the quarter for the industry. But again, some of these headwinds seem a little bit more company specific. So I think any color or granularity you can give more on the end markets over the past one to two months would be helpful. And then I'll ask my follow-up.

我只是認為，失誤的嚴重程度表明該行業本季退出的趨勢不佳。但同樣，其中一些不利因素似乎更具公司特定性。因此，我認為在過去的一到兩個月內，您可以在終端市場上提供更多的任何顏色或粒度都會有所幫助。然後我會問我的後續行動。

Yes. Thanks, Jon. I think in the end markets, on the dental side, we saw -- we really -- I would reiterate, we've seen steady dental traffic patterns throughout the quarter.

是的。謝謝，喬恩。我認為在終端市場，在牙科方面，我們看到——我們真的——我會重申，整個季度我們看到了穩定的牙科流量模式。

I would say if you phased our quarter, the July consumables were a bit worse. I don't think that necessarily have a lot to do with patient traffic. I mean I think if you look back at the three things we talked about that primarily contributed to our miss from expectations, I view all of them as some transient dynamics that continue to ripple through the first quarter in the dental business that we think as we move forward are not an issue as we go through the rest of the year, things that we can overcome.

我想說，如果你分階段分析我們的季度，七月的消耗品會更糟。我認為這與患者流量不一定有很大關係。我的意思是，我認為，如果你回顧我們討論的三件事，這三件事主要導致我們未能達到預期，我認為所有這些都是一些短暫的動態，將繼續影響我們認為的牙科業務第一季的影響。

But I don't view it as necessarily much to do with the traffic. I think the patient traffic has been steady. On the production animal side, we continue to have strength there. So those end markets are holding up very well. And on top of that, our team is executing at an extremely high level.

但我不認為這跟交通有很大關係。我認為患者流量一直穩定。在生產動物方面，我們繼續擁有優勢。因此，這些終端市場表現良好。最重要的是，我們的團隊正在以極高的水平執行。

And then I think we mentioned some of the animal health or some of the companion piece here. Vet visits are down slightly. I think the vet visits are down slightly, but the revenue kind of per visit is up. So there's a little bit of that, but that's not -- that's similar to what we've had in the past.

然後我想我們在這裡提到了一些動物健康或一些配套文章。獸醫就診次數略有下降。我認為獸醫的就診次數略有下降，但每次就診的收入卻增加。所以有一點這樣的情況，但這不是——這與我們過去的情況相似。

So I view the underlying market is good. I think we have some transient things here that have impacted the quarter. As we mentioned, in this particular case, we have a lot of good opportunity and levers to overcome the transient piece.

所以我認為基礎市場是好的。我認為我們這裡有一些暫時性的事情影響了本季。正如我們所提到的，在這種特殊情況下，我們有很多很好的機會和槓桿來克服瞬態部分。

And I feel optimistic about the underlying markets and kind of our position in them and the assumptions we used to put together our budget forecast originally as we go through Q2, Q3, and Q4, which is ultimately why we got back to reaffirming our guidance.

我對基礎市場、我們在其中的地位以及我們在第二季度、第三季度和第四季度最初用來匯總預算預測的假設感到樂觀，這就是我們最終重新確認我們的指導的原因。

Got it. Very helpful color. Maybe just on the follow-up. I'll just focus on the dental consumable number. It was surprisingly soft, but again, the commentary, you did clear some stuff up. It seems to be a bit of a culprit of what's going on with Change.

知道了。非常有用的顏色。也許只是後續行動。我只關注牙科耗材數量。它出奇地柔軟，但同樣，評論，你確實澄清了一些東西。它似乎是改變的罪魁禍首。

So do you still feel like the company is in, call it, share capture mode within the dental consumables? Is there sort of a normalized consumable number? I don't know if that's possible to throw out there. But maybe most importantly, if some of those customers pulled back from a cash flow perspective, staying within Patterson's domain, if you would, and we would see some catch up in subsequent quarters?

那麼，您是否仍然覺得該公司在牙科耗材領域處於所謂的共享捕捉模式？是否有標準化的消耗品數量？我不知道是否可以丟掉那裡。但也許最重要的是，如果其中一些客戶從現金流的角度退出，留在帕特森的領域，如果你願意的話，我們會在接下來的幾個季度看到一些趕上？

No, I think that's fair. I mean I think that our customers did have -- there was some change in ordering patterns we saw -- like I mentioned, we saw some of it late in the quarter in July, but I think a lot of that had to do with -- again, with cash flow and timing. I mean the other thing I would throw out, last year, we have a tough comp in the quarter, particularly in July, which I think contributed to some of the trends we saw.

不，我認為這是公平的。我的意思是，我認為我們的客戶確實有——我們看到的訂購模式發生了一些變化——就像我提到的，我們在7 月的季度末看到了一些變化，但我認為這很大程度上與— - 再次，現金流和時機。我的意思是我要拋出的另一件事是，去年，我們在本季（尤其是 7 月）的業績表現不佳，我認為這促成了我們看到的一些趨勢。

Last July, if you remember, we were dealing with a potential UPS strike, which is our main external carrier. And so there was some stocking up at the end of July last year that impacted our number there, and we're up against that for Q1 here this time in July.

如果你還記得的話，去年 7 月，我們正在應對潛在的 UPS 罷工，這是我們主要的外部承運商。因此，去年 7 月底的一些庫存影響了我們在那裡的數量，而我們在 7 月的這個時候就面臨第一季的庫存。

So I think that also contributed to the change. But those are all timing things from my perspective. And again, we feel good about the underlying markets and just our ability to get back to where we were. We've had a good track record over several quarters. So this at best is a one quarter anomaly in our mind.

所以我認為這也促成了這種改變。但從我的角度來看，這些都是時間問題。再說一遍，我們對基礎市場以及我們回到原來水準的能力感到滿意。我們在幾個季度中都取得了良好的業績記錄。因此，在我們看來，這充其量只是四分之一的異常現象。

Brandon Vazquez, William Blair.

布蘭登·巴斯克斯，威廉·布萊爾。

Moring, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just a follow-up on the last question you guys were just talking about there. Can you just talk a little bit about the cadence of guidance for the rest of the year?

莫寧，大家。感謝您提出問題。也許只是你們剛才討論的最後一個問題的後續。能否簡單談談今年剩餘時間的指導節奏？

You guys seem to be in a pretty good spot where you were able to reaffirm the guidance. So how do we think of moving past some of these Change Healthcare headwinds and what that means for the P&L and implications for guidance cadence for the year?

你們似乎處於一個很好的位置，能夠重申指導方針。那麼，我們如何看待改變醫療保健變革中的一些逆風，這對損益表意味著什麼以及對今年指導節奏的影響？

Sure, Brandon. This is Kevin. I'll make a couple of comments on that. So typically, with our seasonality, we are more back half weighted in terms of our EPS deliveries in our Q3 and Q4. This year, it will be more heavily weighted to the back half.

當然，布蘭登。這是凱文.我將對此發表幾點評論。因此，通常情況下，由於我們的季節性因素，我們在第三季和第四季的每股盈餘交付量方面的權重會更高。今年，後半部分的權重將更大。

A couple of factors to consider as you think about the phasing. One, the Change Healthcare issues that we had talked about in our comments. That's, as Don said, still somewhat ongoing. We'll see some improved performance in Q3 and Q4, but that's still something that we're working with our customers on.

在考慮分階段時需要考慮幾個因素。一是我們在評論中討論過的改變醫療保健問題。正如唐所說，這仍在進行中。我們將在第三季和第四季看到性能的一些改進，但這仍然是我們正在與客戶合作的事情。

But in Q4, we will comp over the issue that we had in Q4 of fiscal '24. So if you remember, in Q4 of fiscal '24, that cohort of customers, we essentially had zero revenue because we had to get transitioned them on to the claims processing software. So that's one factor that will improve in our back half of fiscal '25.

但在第四季度，我們將彌補 24 財年第四季遇到的問題。因此，如果您還記得，在 24 財年第四季度，這群客戶的收入基本上為零，因為我們必須將他們轉移到索賠處理軟體上。因此，這是我們 25 財年後半段將會改善的因素之一。

And then the other factor I'll say as we go through the year, some of the actions that Don mentioned in his comments that we're undertaking here internally. Those will ramp up as the year goes on. So we'll get some benefit from those here in Q2.

然後，在我們度過這一年的過程中，我要說的另一個因素是唐在他的評論中提到的我們正在內部採取的一些行動。隨著時間的推移，這些數字將會增加。因此，我們將從第二季的這些中獲得一些好處。

We anticipate really the full impact of some of those actions, both on the promotional demand driving side and the cost side will be more kind of fully baked by the time you get to Q3 and Q4, which will also be a positive comp to our last year.

我們預計，到第三季和第四季時，其中一些行動的全面影響，無論是促銷需求驅動方面還是成本方面，都將更加充分，這也將是我們上一次的積極補償年。

Okay. Great. And then as a follow-up here, maybe switching to companion animal. You guys have talked a little bit about maybe deprioritizing, I'm not sure if that's the exact word you used, but deprioritizing some segments there. Can you talk a little bit -- any more details on what segments you guys may be looking to move away from?

好的。偉大的。然後作為後續行動，也許會切換到伴侶動物。你們已經談論了一些可能取消優先順序的問題，我不確定這是否是你們使用的確切詞，但取消了某些部分的優先順序。您能談談您可能希望放棄哪些細分市場的更多細節嗎？

And then is this a rolling process? Or is this something that's done in Q1, and we should think about that headwind lessening now? Or do you kind of continue to do this process as we go through the year, and there could be some more noise? Thanks.

那麼這是一個滾動的過程嗎？或者這是第一季所做的事情，我們現在應該考慮阻力正在減少嗎？或者，在我們度過這一年的過程中，您是否會繼續執行此過程，並且可能會出現更多噪音？謝謝。

Yes. Look, so thanks. Good question. I think this is really a -- it's not really as much a market segment comment necessarily as a customer segmentation. We just feel with our value proposition and kind of what we bring in terms of customer experience, we're interested in doing business with our customers where we think there's a margin profile that is commensurate with the value we bring.

是的。看看吧，非常感謝。好問題。我認為這實際上並不是市場區隔評論，而是客戶區隔。我們只是覺得我們的價值主張以及我們在客戶體驗方面帶來的東西，我們有興趣與我們的客戶開展業務，我們認為客戶的利潤狀況與我們帶來的價值相稱。

And so we continue to segment, to some extent, the customer base. I think we're fairly far down the path of this. And I think you'll see that moderate as the year goes on. The impact is probably the most acute last quarter and this quarter. As we move through the year, we'll be in a position where we work through that customer list.

因此，我們在某種程度上繼續對客戶群進行細分。我認為我們在這方面已經走了相當遠的路。我認為隨著時間的推移，你會看到這種情況的溫和。上季和本季的影響可能最為嚴重。隨著這一年的推移，我們將能夠處理該客戶名單。

Allen Lutz, Bank of America.

艾倫·盧茨，美國銀行。

Good morning and thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask another one on the dental consumables side. If we think about growth in the quarter down about 2%, is there any way to frame the two items that you called out? So the impact from customers with cash flow headwinds, maybe they're ordering a little bit less as they're dealing with change. That's kind of the first point.

早安，感謝您提出我的問題。我想問牙科耗材方面的另一位。如果我們考慮本季的成長下降約 2%，是否有任何方法可以框架您提到的兩個項目？因此，受到現金流逆風的客戶的影響，他們在應對變化時可能會減少訂購量。這是第一點。

And then the second point, if we think about the year-over-year comp, how much of a benefit was maybe the inventory build you saw last year ahead of the UPS strike? So kind of putting those two together, maybe down two in a more normalized environment is up small? Just trying to get a sense of what is the impact from those two things.

然後是第二點，如果我們考慮同比情況，您去年在 UPS 罷工之前看到的庫存增加可能帶來了多少好處？那麼，將這兩者放在一起，也許在更正常化的環境中下降兩個是小幅度的上升？只是想了解這兩件事的影響是什麼。

Yes, I'll start. I think I'd say within the quarter, the Change Healthcare impact was the larger one. I think as we saw -- as we start working with those customers that disrupt -- like Don said, the disruption to those practices were acute. And we saw their patterns be more significantly disrupted.

是的，我要開始了。我想我會說在本季內，變革醫療保健的影響更大。我認為，正如我們所看到的，當我們開始與那些破壞性的客戶合作時，就像唐所說，對這些做法的破壞是嚴重的。我們看到他們的模式被更嚴重地破壞。

So I'd say that dynamic within our business was the more acute issue. Some of the more kind of timing issues Don mentioned around the end of July into August here last year, I'd say that was certainly an impact but less significant versus the overall kind of Change Healthcare issue.

所以我想說，我們業務內部的動態是更尖銳的問題。唐去年在 7 月底到 8 月期間提到的一些更多的時間問題，我想說這肯定是一個影響，但與整體的改變醫療保健問題相比不太重要。

Okay. Great. And then for my follow-up on the companion animal side, how should we think about the margin trajectory over the remainder of the year? The impact from the rebates, should we think about that as something that just impacts the first quarter? Or should we think about that impacting the trajectory of the margins over the remaining three quarters?

好的。偉大的。然後，對於我在伴侶動物方面的後續行動，我們該如何考慮今年剩餘時間的利潤軌跡？回扣的影響，我們是否應該將其視為僅影響第一季的因素？或者我們應該考慮這對剩餘三個季度利潤率軌跡的影響？

Well, I think our expectation is that as we move through the quarter or move through the year that we get back to a normal cadence in terms of rebates. As I mentioned, this is a little bit more acute here last quarter or this quarter.

嗯，我認為我們的期望是，隨著季度或年度的推移，我們在回扣方面會恢復到正常節奏。正如我所提到的，上個季度或本季這種情況更加嚴重。

So I think as we move forward, we're -- we have confidence that we'll get back on track in terms of the rebates. I think ultimately, our view is we get back on track for companion animal back to their budgeted numbers and their expectations for the year. And they have a great track record, the team there.

因此，我認為，隨著我們向前邁進，我們有信心在回扣方面回到正軌。我認為最終，我們的觀點是我們讓伴侶動物回到預算數量和今年的預期。他們的團隊有著出色的記錄。

Jeff Johnson, Baird.

傑夫·約翰遜，貝爾德。

Thank you. Good morning. Hoping I can just maybe clarify a couple of points here from the call so far. Just on the Change Healthcare, you said at one point in the prepared remarks that most of your customers, you've switched over to alternative payment processors, things like that, but it sounds like some of this impact is going to continue.

謝謝。早安.希望我能澄清到目前為止通話中的幾點。就改變醫療保健而言，您在準備好的評論中曾說過，您的大多數客戶已經轉向替代支付處理器之類的事情，但聽起來這種影響將繼續下去。

Is the impact continuing just because you've monetized from those alternate payment processors maybe less than you do through Change? And would you expect any impact on the consumables ordering patterns to continue as well? Or is -- again, is it just because you monetize maybe less on those alternate payment processes? Thanks.

影響持續存在是否只是因為您從這些替代支付處理商獲得的貨幣可能少於透過 Change 獲得的貨幣？您預計對消耗品訂購模式的影響也會持續嗎？還是—再說一遍，這只是因為您在這些替代支付流程上的貨幣化可能較少嗎？謝謝。

Yes. Thanks, Jeff. I think I would view it as definitely more of the former than the latter. I mean ultimately, our customers have needs in terms of the consumables that they need to run their practice. And so I think I view that more as a timing issue. The revenue per customer on our new platform is slightly less than what we were getting on Change. So that is just going to be a continuing impact that we'll deal with and have to overcome.

是的。謝謝，傑夫。我想我更傾向於前者而不是後者。我的意思是，最終，我們的客戶對進行實踐所需的消耗品有需求。所以我認為我更多地認為這是一個時機問題。我們新平台上每位客戶的收入略低於我們在 Change 上獲得的收入。因此，這將是我們將應對並必須克服的持續影響。

But the ordering patterns on consumables and with our customer base largely being smaller dental clinics, in some cases, the cash impacts of not being able to payment -- to process payments were acute and something that they had to manage the best way they could. But I view those [old cutters] something that's going to come back.

但消耗品的訂購模式以及我們的客戶群主要是小型牙科診所，在某些情況下，無法付款（處理付款）對現金的影響非常嚴重，他們必須以最佳方式進行管理。但我認為那些[老刀具]將會捲土重來。

Okay. And then maybe two follow-ups to that. One for you, just are any of those customers permanently lost? It's not like they went somewhere else, ordered consumables somewhere else and they're not coming back. So I just want to confirm that.

好的。然後也許還有兩個後續行動。一個適合您，只是這些客戶中是否有人永久流失？這並不是說他們去了其他地方，在其他地方訂購了消耗品，然後就不再回來了。所以我只是想確認一下。

And then, Kevin, if I can just pin you down a little bit on the prior question about the buckets of the Change Healthcare versus the UPS shipping last year. Was the Change Healthcare as you called that the bigger acute impact in the quarter? Was that a point or two of that down 1.7% consumables? Was it more than that? And then was the UPS 0.5 point, 1 point? I mean, can you put us in any kind of buckets so we can look at kind of what normalized consumables ex those 2 points might have looked like in the quarter?

然後，凱文，我能否簡單地解釋一下先前關於 Change Healthcare 與去年 UPS 運輸的桶子的問題。您所說的醫療保健變革是否對本季產生了更大的影響？消耗品下降 1.7% 是一、兩點嗎？還不止這些嗎？然後UPS是0.5分還是1分？我的意思是，你能把我們放在任何類型的桶中，這樣我們就可以看看本季度除了這兩點之外的標準化消耗品可能會是什麼樣子？

Yes. I think you're in the right ballpark there, Jeff. I mean I think the UPS issue was a handful of weeks last year. And so just if you think about our volume, less than 1 point is probably the right ballpark there.

是的。我認為你的想法是對的，傑夫。我的意思是，我認為 UPS 問題去年就發生了幾週。因此，如果您考慮我們的交易量，那麼小於 1 分可能是正確的大致範圍。

But like the Change Healthcare impact, obviously, that was ongoing from May, June and even into July a bit, so that was the larger piece of it. So I think if you look at those and you think about, okay, well, we usually have some quarter-to-quarter variation in consumables anyway.

但顯然，就像改變醫療保健的影響一樣，這種影響從五月、六月甚至持續到七月，所以這是其中較大的一部分。所以我認為，如果你看看這些，你會想，好吧，好吧，無論如何，我們的消耗品通常會有一些季度與季度的變化。

Traffic still steady like Don said, you kind of can bridge it back to a more normalized low single-digit kind of consumables market.

正如唐所說，流量仍然穩定，你可以將其恢復到更正常化的低個位數消費品市場。

Fair enough. Don, any permanent loss of those customers? Sorry. Thanks.

很公平。唐，這些客戶是否會永久流失？對不起。謝謝。

Yeah, yeah. No, Jeff. So I don't -- it's not a permanent loss of customers. What I think we're dealing with is there are some customers that switched away from our Change Healthcare option and found different ways of getting to that. It didn't involve Patterson. So it's probably more -- there's a small part of our customer base that moved to a different process that was not embedded in our software more than it was losing the customer altogether.

是啊是啊。不，傑夫。所以我不認為——這並不是客戶的永久流失。我認為我們正在處理的是，有些客戶放棄了我們的「改變醫療保健」選項，並找到了不同的方法來實現這一目標。這並不涉及帕特森。所以可能更多的是——我們的一小部分客戶群轉移到了一個沒有嵌入到我們軟體中的不同流程，而不是完全失去客戶。

Elizabeth Anderson, Evercore ISI.

伊麗莎白·安德森，Evercore ISI。

Hi, guys. Thanks so much for the question. I was wondering if you could talk about a little bit more on the OpEx side. I think you talked about some of the things like the higher level of software investment and the medical claims. I think you said the medical claims you're expecting to sort of step down as we move through the year.

嗨，大家好。非常感謝您的提問。我想知道您是否可以多談談營運支出方面的問題。我想你談到了一些事情，例如更高水準的軟體投資和醫療索賠。我想你說過，隨著今年的過去，你預計醫療索賠將會減少。

And then the higher level of software investment, I just want to better understand that cadence as we move through the year and anything else you call, it sounds like you're also maybe taking some incremental -- like looks at some cost cutting on that side. So just helping us sort of establish that cadence across the rest of the year would be helpful.

然後是更高水準的軟體投資，我只是想更好地理解這一年的節奏以及你所說的任何其他事情，聽起來你可能也在採取一些增量措施——比如考慮削減一些成本邊。因此，只要幫助我們在今年剩餘時間建立這種節奏就會有所幫助。

Yes. Yes. So the software investment, you remember last year, we made a strategic investment in our software development for the dental commercial support franchise. That really ramped up in Q2. We were sort of mobilizing it in Q1 of last year, and then that team was established and really running when you got into Q2. So that I'd say it's an unfavorable year-over-year comp from a cost [standpoint] in Q1 that will be kind of baked into our base going forward for the rest of the year.

是的。是的。因此，軟體投資，您還記得去年，我們對牙科商業支援特許經營的軟體開發進行了策略性投資。第二季度這數字確實有所增加。我們在去年第一季就動員了它，然後當進入第二季度時，該團隊就成立並真正運作了。因此，我想說，從第一季的成本[角度]來看，這是一個不利的同比比較，這將在今年剩餘時間融入我們的基礎中。

The medical claims issues, so we're self-insured so we pay -- we essentially pay out of pocket for our employees' medical claims here. And what we see in the quarter was just late in the quarter have an unusually high spike in claim activity. Looking back over our history, that can happen. We have to adjust our accrual when that happens, and that's what created the increased cost here in the quarter.

醫療索賠問題，所以我們有自我保險，所以我們支付——我們基本上是自掏腰包支付員工的醫療索賠。我們在本季看到的情況是，就在本季末，索賠活動出現了異常高的峰值。回顧我們的歷史，這種情況是有可能發生的。當這種情況發生時，我們必須調整應計費用，這就是本季成本增加的原因。

But typically, when you see one of those spikes, it normalizes over the longer term. So as we look forward, we expect that to be, again, more in line with our expectation for the full year and not an unfavorable variance to our outlook.

但通常情況下，當你看到其中一個峰值時，它會在較長時間內恢復正常。因此，展望未來，我們預計這將再次更符合我們對全年的預期，而不是對我們的前景產生不利的影響。

And so I think those are the two main issues. And then the incremental actions we're taking to kind of impose some cost discipline here, given our first quarter like I said, those are really kind of start being embedded here in Q2 and be fully ramped up. So the year-over-year benefit in our OpEx will be Q3 and Q4.

所以我認為這是兩個主要問題。然後，我們正在採取增量行動，在這裡實施一些成本紀律，考慮到我們的第一季度，就像我所說的那樣，這些行動確實開始在第二季度嵌入並全面加強。因此，我們的營運支出的年比收益將是第三季和第四季。

Yes. I guess I would add, as I mentioned in the script, I think we have the levers, and we're going to have full levers here that we need to make sure we overcome the pieces of the miss here that are nontiming and nontransient, which is a lot less than the gap. A lot of it is just timing of transient-type activity.

是的。我想我要補充一點，正如我在劇本中提到的，我認為我們有槓桿，而且我們將在這裡擁有充分的槓桿，我們需要確保我們克服這裡不定時和非瞬態的失誤，這比差距小很多。其中很多只是瞬態活動的時間安排。

Okay. So are you expecting on a full year basis, margins to be about flat versus last year? Is that fair to say or a little bit of expansion?

好的。那麼您是否預計全年利潤率將與去年持平？這是公平的說法還是一點延伸？

Yes, probably in the realm of flat as we're trying to take the actions. And like I said, we're also trying to protect some of the strategic investments that we've embarked on. And we're trying to balance that to hold the margin in that area.

是的，可能是在平坦的領域，因為我們正在嘗試採取行動。正如我所說，我們也在努力保護我們已經開始的一些策略性投資。我們正在努力平衡這一點，以保持該領域的利潤。

Jason Bednar, Piper Sandler.

傑森·貝德納，派珀·桑德勒。

Hey. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to come back to, first, the cost management actions. I don't think you mentioned exactly what's in play here, but just curious what specific actions you're taking? Are these formal restructuring items, headcount reductions and those sorts of things? And then I don't think I heard a number, just -- but any -- if you're able to, what kind of cost savings, if you could quantify with those savings, what you're expecting to see from this program this year?

嘿。大家早安。我想先回到成本管理行動。我認為您沒有具體提到這裡正在發生什麼，但只是好奇您正在採取哪些具體行動？這些是正式的重組計畫、裁員之類的事情嗎？然後我想我沒有聽到一個數字，只是——但任何——如果你能夠的話，會節省什麼樣的成本，如果你能用這些節省來量化，你希望從這個計劃中看到今年什麼？

Yes. Good question. So I think the cost actions are really things across the board that we previously identified and kind of have ready to implement to make sure we're hitting our numbers. I think you can think about things like travel, open requisitions for jobs that we're currently looking at.

是的。好問題。因此，我認為成本行動確實是我們先前確定的全面措施，並且已經準備好實施，以確保我們達到目標。我認為你可以考慮諸如旅行、我們目前正在尋找的職位的開放申請等問題。

There may be some people actions and kind of all the levers that are at our disposal here to make sure. What we're not going to do is, as Kevin mentioned, is really harm our investments and things that are part of our long-term strategy. So we're striking that balance.

我們可以使用一些人的行動和所有槓桿來確認。正如凱文所提到的，我們不會做的是真正損害我們的投資和屬於我們長期策略一部分的事情。所以我們正在尋求這種平衡。

There's certainly also -- if we chose to get into that bucket, there's an additional opportunity there. But we're looking at this as a balance between making sure we maintain our guidance this year but also our -- continue our investing in our long-term strategy, which we're very confident about.

當然還有──如果我們選擇進入那個桶，那裡還有一個額外的機會。但我們將其視為確保我們維持今年的指導和繼續投資於我們的長期策略之間的平衡，我們對此非常有信心。

Okay. I guess two things. First, no quantification there? And then just as a follow-up, I guess I'm a bit surprised it hasn't been asked yet, but can you talk about the relationship and contract negotiations with Dentsply Sirona after they issued that -- the contract non-renewal notice to you?

好的。我猜有兩件事。首先，沒有量化嗎？然後作為後續行動，我想我有點驚訝還沒有被問到，但是您能談談在登士柏西諾德發出合約不續約通知後與他們的關係和合約談判嗎對你來說？

I guess what should investors expect has now come from this process? And I know you probably don't want to litigate this issue on a call like this, but maybe help investors with some of the items? And just strategically, how you're approaching retaining and renegotiating this contract?

我想投資人現在應該對這個過程有何期待？我知道您可能不想在這樣的電話會議上就這個問題提起訴訟，但也許可以幫助投資者解決某些問題？從戰略上講，你們將如何保留並重新談判這份合約？

Yes. So no quantification on the actions that we're ready and kind of want to give on the call here. I guess on the second topic, look, first, I'd never comment publicly on any specifics with ongoing conversations with any of our vendor partners. So I just don't think litigating this in the public forum is appropriate.

是的。因此，我們沒有對我們已經準備好並希望在電話會議上採取的行動進行量化。我想關於第二個主題，首先，我絕對不會公開評論與我們任何供應商合作夥伴正在進行的對話中的任何細節。所以我認為在公共論壇上提起訴訟是不合適的。

We -- the non-renewal-type activity and various other negotiating things, I think, are fairly common in our business, obviously. And I would just say that we're grateful for all of our vendor partners. I think from our perspective, the key thing there is they deliver innovation. I think the innovation created a lot of healthy competition out there for business, and it provides plenty of great solutions for all our customer needs and frankly, to us for the things that we provide.

我認為，顯然，非續約類型的活動和各種其他談判事項在我們的業務中相當普遍。我只想說，我們感謝所有供應商夥伴。我認為從我們的角度來看，關鍵在於他們提供創新。我認為這項創新為業務創造了許多良性競爭，它為我們所有客戶的需求提供了大量出色的解決方案，坦白說，也為我們提供的產品提供了許多出色的解決方案。

So -- and then I guess I'd point you to our value proposition, which we're very confident about, our knowledge and experience with all the potential solutions and then a lot of the other things that we provide that may fly a little bit under the radar, but financing, installation, training, support, service.

因此，我想我會向您介紹我們的價值主張，我們對此非常有信心，我們對所有潛在解決方案的知識和經驗，以及我們提供的許多其他可能會有所幫助的東西有點低調，但融資、安裝、訓練、支援、服務。

And a stat I'd throw out to you is that in fiscal '24, we had over 1 million calls to our Patterson Technology Center for troubleshooting and support. And so I mean, maybe the last thing is I've had quite a bit of interaction with a lot of our vendor partners here over the last month for various reasons.

我想向您提供的一項統計數據是，在 24 財年，我們接到了超過 100 萬個致電帕特森技術中心尋求故障排除和支援的電話。所以我的意思是，也許最後一件事是，由於各種原因，上個月我與這裡的許多供應商合作夥伴進行了相當多的互動。

And that's done nothing but enhance my confidence and kind of support what I think about in terms of our value proposition and things that we're bringing to help both our vendor partners and frankly, more importantly, our customers.

這除了增強我的信心和支持之外，我對我們的價值主張以及我們為幫助我們的供應商合作夥伴以及坦率地說，更重要的是我們的客戶而提供的東西的看法。

Michael Cherny, Leerink Partners.

邁克爾·切爾尼，Leerink Partners。

Morning. Jason just covered my second question. So I'll just ask one here. Kind of going back to the dental consumables side, I know you've talked about a lot of moving pieces, gave us some color on exit rates, some of the dynamics with the UPS inventory build from last year.

早晨。傑森剛剛回答了我的第二個問題。所以我就在這裡問一個。回到牙科耗材方面，我知道您談到了很多變化，給我們提供了退出率的一些信息，以及去年 UPS 庫存建設的一些動態。

I guess simplistically speaking, within your guidance, is the embedded view that dental consumables will grow this year, especially with year-over-year comps and some of the market disruptions? Curious to see how we get and then make sure we get to that build over the course of the year.

我想簡單地說，在您的指導下，人們普遍認為牙科耗材今年將會成長，特別是考慮到同比比較和一些市場中斷？很想知道我們是如何實現的，然後確保我們在這一年中實現這一目標。

Yes. I'll make a few comments, and then maybe Kevin can -- the expectation definitely is that they'll grow. And I understand the questions today on the quarter.

是的。我會發表一些評論，然後凱文也許可以——我們的期望肯定是他們會成長。我了解今天有關本季的問題。

I think the best thing I can do here is point everybody back to kind of the last four, five, six quarters and kind of how we have been performing. Nothing has fundamentally changed from my perspective in either the end markets or our ability to continue to take share and perform at that level.

我認為我在這裡能做的最好的事情就是讓大家回顧過去四個、五個、六個季度以及我們的表現。從我的角度來看，無論是終端市場還是我們繼續佔據份額並在該水平上表現的能力都沒有發生根本性的變化。

I think the things that we mentioned today are kind of the timing pieces that impacted an individual quarter here. But I mean I guess I'd ask everyone to not over index on just the individual quarter. Let's see how the year plays out, but our expectation is for growth.

我認為我們今天提到的事情是影響單一季度的時間因素。但我的意思是，我想我會要求每個人不要只對單一季度過度索引。讓我們看看這一年的表現如何，但我們的期望是成長。

Yeah. And the other thing I'd add to that, Michael, is obviously, as the year goes on, two headwinds abate for us. One is the Change Healthcare issue that we're focused on right now. And then the other -- I want to make it like Don said in his comments.

是的。邁克爾，我要補充的另一件事是，隨著時間的推移，我們面臨的兩個阻力顯然會減弱。一是我們現在關注的改變醫療保健問題。然後另一個 - 我想讓它像唐在他的評論中所說的那樣。

The deflation that we've been dealing with over the past couple of years is essentially kind over. So as we look at our top-line numbers, that headwinds kind of normalize. So a lot of infection control products that have been deflationary for us for the past year or so, that kind of falls off, and we get back to a more normalized reported number for our consumables.

過去幾年我們一直在應對的通貨緊縮基本上已經結束了。因此，當我們看到我們的營收數據時，這種不利因素已經趨於正常化。因此，在過去一年左右的時間裡，許多感染控制產品對我們來說一直處於通縮狀態，這種情況有所下降，我們的消耗品報告數據又回到了更標準化的水平。

Erin Wright, Morgan Stanley.

艾琳·賴特，摩根士丹利。

Great. On animal health, you mentioned the deprioritization of a customer, but -- and I think you've talked about that before. But are there any changes in terms of your negotiations with manufactured on that front? You mentioned to rebate dynamics in the quarter, but does your guidance assume any major switches in terms of buy-sell versus agency relationships? Or does your guidance also assume any sort of normalization in volume trends just across companion animal as well?

偉大的。關於動物健康，您提到了客戶的優先順序降低，但是 - 我認為您之前已經討論過這一點。但是你們與製造商在這方面的談判有什麼改變嗎？您提到了本季的回扣動態，但您的指導意見是否假設買賣與代理關係方面存在任何重大轉變？或者您的指導是否也假設伴侶動物的數量趨勢也出現任何形式的正常化？

And you'll see some support, I guess, from product launches, too, coming up. But I guess how are you thinking about internal growth for the balance of the year, I guess, across animal health?

我想，您也會從即將推出的產品中看到一些支援。但我想您如何看待今年餘下時間動物健康領域的內部成長？

Yes. I'll start. I don't know if Kevin will have any comments, but really no changes there in the contracts with the vendors there. But as you mentioned, I think the thing we're focused on is a new product flow coming, the impact on that. And part of the whole process here with making sure we're working with the right customers is related to that.

是的。我開始吧。我不知道凱文是否會有任何評論，但與那裡供應商的合約確實沒有變化。但正如你所提到的，我認為我們關注的是新產品流的出現及其影響。確保我們與正確的客戶合作的整個過程的一部分與此相關。

Okay. And so it's related to a manufacturer customer as opposed to a veterinarian customer?

好的。那麼它與製造商客戶而不是獸醫客戶有關？

No, the -- go ahead, Kevin.

不，——繼續吧，凱文。

Yeah. I guess what I'd say is as we go through the year, and the team once starts -- again, I'm sorry, the kind of reset in some of those customer and product relationships that we've had over the past year that we start comping over that. And then we have some new products and new partners coming out here in the rest of the year that will provide another tailwind for the companion animal business as those products get in their bag, and we can start selling those.

是的。我想我要說的是，當我們度過這一年時，團隊再次開始 - 再次，我很抱歉，我們在過去一年中進行的一些客戶和產品關係的重置我們開始對此進行比較。然後，我們將在今年剩餘時間內推出一些新產品和新合作夥伴，當這些產品進入他們的口袋時，這將為伴侶動物業務提供另一個推動力，我們可以開始銷售這些產品。

Yeah. I guess it's more just how that might -- how that plays through to the customer relation. Sorry for the confusion and not the [listener].

是的。我想更重要的是這可能如何影響客戶關係。抱歉造成混亂，而不是[聽眾]。

Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. And then just you mentioned some of the UPS change dynamics on the consumables front. But just are you seeing more aggressive promotional activity from some of those online aggregators or other kind of alternative channel kind of competitors on that front? I assume the answer is no based on a lot of the consumables questions that you've already answered, but just wanted to ask that, I guess, more directly.

好的。好的。知道了。知道了。然後您剛剛提到了 UPS 在消耗品方面的一些變化動態。但是，您是否看到一些線上聚合商或其他類型的替代通路競爭對手在這方面進行了更積極的促銷活動？我認為答案是否定的，基於您已經回答的許多消耗品問題，但我想，我只是想更直接地問這個問題。

Yes. No, nothing notable. Again, I would say that the macro environment, our position in it and how we're performing really hasn't changed. It's just some of the timing dynamics here.

是的。不，沒什麼值得注意的。我再說一遍，宏觀環境、我們在其中的地位以及我們的表現確實沒有改變。這只是這裡的一些時間動態。

And I guess that's our last question. So I appreciate all the interest in Patterson, and we'll talk to you next quarter. Thank you.

我想這是我們的最後一個問題。因此，我感謝大家對帕特森的興趣，我們將在下個季度與您交談。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。