DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc.

Good day, everyone, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 10 Splice Toronto first quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during that session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, simply press star one one again. we ask that you please keep your questions to one in one follow-up. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to the Vice President of Investor Relations, Andrea Daly. Please proceed.

Andrea Daly Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Dents by Sirona first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me for today's call is Simon Campion, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Coleman, Chief Financial Officer, and Andreas Frank, Chief Business Officer. I'd like to remind you that an earnings press release and slide presentation related to the call are available in the investor section of our website at www.demsplicerona.com. Before we begin, please take a moment to read the forward-looking statements in our earnings press release. During today's call, we may make certain predictive statements that reflect our current views about future performance and financial results. We base these statements and certain assumptions and expectations on future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our most recently filed Form 10-K and any updating information in subsequent SEC filings lists some of the most important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from our predictions. Additionally, on today's call, our remarks will be based on non-GAAP financial results. We believe that non-GAAP financial measures offer investors valuable additional insights into our business's financial performance, enable the comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independently of business performance, and enhance transparency regarding key metrics utilized by management in operating our business. Please refer to our press release for the reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results. Comparisons provided are to prior your quarter unless otherwise noted. A webcast replay of today's call will be available on the investor section of the company's website following the call. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Simon.

Thank you, Andrea, and thank you all for being here with us this morning for our Q1 2024 earnings call. Today, I'll begin, as usual, by providing a summary of our recent performance. Glenn will cover Q1 financial results and the full-year outlook, and I will finish by providing an update on our strategic operating plan. Now, starting on slide three, in Q1, organic sales declined by 1.9%, driven by lower sales in connected technology solutions and essential dental solutions, partly offset by growth in orthodontic and implant solutions and well-specced healthcare. Within CTS, imaging equipment experienced larger than expected headwinds, driven by continued unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and competitive pressure. Regionally, the macroeconomic environment in Germany remained challenging. For the quarter, organic sales were roughly flat, excluding Germany. In April, we conducted our quarterly global customer survey covering 12 countries with nearly 1,500 respondents. Survey results indicate that in the U.S., patient volumes are stable and dentist sentiment is relatively unchanged. In Canada, a new government health policy designed to help lower- and middle-income families is rolling out in the first half of 2024, which we believe has resulted in patients delaying treatments until this benefit is in effect. In Germany, we are pleased to see procedure utilization and dentists' outlook improve slightly. All other European markets included in the survey remain relatively stable. In Asia Pacific, dentists in Australia continued to exhibit more negative sentiment. We saw mixed feedback in Japan. While there was a decline in patient volumes, dentists were positive around the imminent change in reimbursement for intraoral scans. Finally, in China, patient volumes are stable but remain low compared to other markets. As we execute on our strategic objectives, it remains crucial that we consistently seek input from customers to inform our decisions so that we can validate that we are on the right path. We appreciate so many taking the time quarter after quarter to provide us with this substantial and valuable input. Our first quarter adjusted EPS was 42 cents, which was an increase of nearly 8% and in line with our expectations despite softer sales. For the full year, we are maintaining our outlook range for organic sales and adjusted EPS but trending towards the low end of both ranges. We're taking a cautious stance here with the macro uncertainties that continue to impact parts of our business, most notably imaging. We're also adjusting net sales for an additional FX headwind. Though we believe these headwinds are transient, we are actively taking additional measures, such as tightening cost controls, to better position us to deliver on our profitability and EPS targets for the year. We remain confident in our long-term trajectory. We have a comprehensive portfolio and are making progress on our strategic objectives. In fact, today we announced that we plan to execute up to $150 million in share repurchases in the second quarter. Moving to slide four, I would like to share some select business highlights. We are advancing innovation and progressing initiatives across our business. DS Core remains a key focus of our innovation. We are delivering enhancements and seeing strong uptick in adoption rates from new users and increased utilization rates from existing users. We also piloted DS Core Enterprise with a large DSO in the US. Given the shared experience to date, we are jointly exploring increasing the scope and size of this pilot. I've already shared the dynamics impacting our imaging business. To better position our portfolio, we expanded our offerings through the relaunch of Orthophos SL, a 2D and 3D imaging line in Europe. Bringing this product line back to market broadens our imaging portfolio and provides flexibility to our customers with more options at different price points. Therefore, we believe bringing this solution back to our customers will improve performance in imaging. Additionally, in CTS, we recently launched Axano Pure, a new treatment center with advanced features at an improved price point, and Midwest Energo, a portfolio of electric handpieces. These innovations bring new efficiencies and enhanced capabilities to our customers, a continued key demand from customers captured in our quarterly survey. In EDS, we continue to roll out ExSmart Pro Plus in additional markets, which included Japan in Q1. eXmart Pro Plus is an endomotor solution that enables dentists to focus more on the procedure rather than the tools. Our data shows that the motor optimizes the performance of Dents by Sirona's endodontic filing systems and has differentiated attributes that sets it apart from its competition. And we are pleased with the uptake of this technology thus far in Europe and in Japan. We also remain committed to advancing sustainability. We are a mission-driven organization focused on improving health and access to care, and we are proud to partner with organizations such as the International Association for Disability and Oral Health, who promote equitable access to high-quality oral health care for patients with disabilities. This partnership builds upon the work we have already done in this area with the University of Pennsylvania to provide equipment for their care center for persons with disabilities, which serves several thousand patients each year. Lastly, our WellSPECT Healthcare business achieved a new milestone with the validation of its emission reduction targets by the Science-Based Targets Initiative. We believe WellSPECT Healthcare has long-standing leadership and expertise in sustainability that can benefit our entire company. And with that, I will hand the call over to Glenn for a more detailed financial update.