11/3/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Bill Newby, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

speaker
Bill Newby
Head of Investor Relations

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Henson Hearst Health third quarter 2025 earnings call. at investors.hems.com. On the call with me today is Andrew Dudum, our co-founder and chief executive officer, and Yemi Okupe, our chief financial officer. Before I hand it over to Andrew, I need to remind you of legal safe harbor and cautionary declarations. Certain statements and projections of future results made in this presentation constitute forward-looking statements that are based on, among other things, our current market, competitors, and regulatory expectations, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially. We take no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements after this call, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, or otherwise. The risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements are described in our earnings release and SEC filings. Please see our recent earnings release and most recently filed 10-K and 10-Q reports for discussion of these risk factors as they relate to forward-looking statements. In today's presentation, we also have certain non-GAAP financial measures. We refer you to the reconciliation tables to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures contained in today's press release and shareholder letter. You can find this information as well as a link to today's webcast at investors.hims.com. After the call, this webcast will be archived on the website for 12 months. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Andrew.

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Bill. The third quarter was another strong step forward for HIMSS and HRSS. Our strategy is working. We're expanding reach, deepening engagement, and transforming how people experience healthcare. And the most exciting part is that this growing scale is making the entire experience better for our subscribers. HINTS and HERS is one of the few healthcare platforms where each customer engagement improves the overall experience. Scale doesn't just make us bigger, it makes us better. The learnings from each encounter position us to drive better experiences, stronger customer relationships, and wider accessibility. Personalized care sits at the center of this evolution. Our growing scale means more people have access to treatment plans that can adapt to their unique needs, biology, and goals by incorporating a variety of form factors, dosing regimens, and multi-conditioned solutions. Our consistent focus on democratizing access to these types of experiences continues to deliver meaningful results for our business. At the end of the quarter, subscribers using personalized solutions grew 50% year over year, helping drive nearly 50% in year over year revenue growth. Over the past few years, how we serve our customers has evolved in extraordinary ways. We started by helping people access simple, effective treatments for a narrow set of conditions. Then we expanded into personalized, multi-condition care, giving customers a single place to manage a wide variety of health challenges with solutions tailored to them. Now, looking ahead, we plan to go beyond helping people treat their existing conditions and start helping them proactively manage their health before conditions even materialize. As we continue building a platform that unlocks broader access to care that's personal, proactive, and connected, we expect that broader collaboration will become key. Whether that's through partnerships, investments, or joint innovation, we see enormous potential to work alongside others across the healthcare ecosystem to make this future a reality. As we noted in our earnings release, We are in active discussions with Novo Nordisk to make Wegovy injections and once FDA approved, Novo's oral Wegovy available through our platform to continue advancing consumer options. Earlier in the quarter, we announced a partnership with Marius Pharmaceuticals, which will allow our customers to access one of the few FDA approved oral testosterone treatments in 2026. We expect these solutions combined with consistent provider support and the ability to seamlessly track hormone levels via the HIMSS app can help redefine how millions of men access effective hormonal care. And most recently, we made a strategic investment in Grail, the company behind what we believe is the most advanced multi-cancer early detection test on the market. We are proud to invest in a company that shares our vision for the future. These relationships underscore the potential of what we've been building. They reflect our ongoing commitment to making our platform a powerful curator of the best in class health and wellness solutions. Over time, we plan to pursue a mix of strategic investments, partnerships, and collaborations in order to build a single destination where customers can access a range of innovative offerings alongside the most personal, convenient care available. These recent developments are an exciting glimpse into a future where access to proactive preventative care is not a privilege, but a standard. I've never been more excited about where this company is heading. When we initially shared our 2030 goals earlier this year of more than $6.5 billion in revenue and $1.3 billion in adjusted EBITDA, it was with this clear vision in mind. Today, we're delivering against that vision in a real way. The opportunity to accelerate our trajectory are materializing quicker than anticipated and we are leaning in. Let's start with weight loss, which remains one of the most important global health challenges impacting nearly 1 billion adults around the world. Since launching this specialty nearly two years ago, we've shown that combining reliable access to effective medication with a best-in-class experience has the potential to change lives. We believe that customers are best supported when they have access to data-driven provider recommendations, ongoing clinical guidance, and easy-to-use digital tools that track progress. The foundation behind our continued growth will be the ongoing verticalization of our compounding infrastructure. We believe investments in these facilities are establishing a new gold standard for compounding infrastructure broadly, positioning us to accelerate growth while maintaining the high standards of safety, quality, and affordability our customers are accustomed to. Importantly, this means all active pharmaceutical ingredients in compounded treatments are sourced from FDA registered facilities. And in cases such as semi-glutide, for which the FDA recently established a green list of GLP-1 API suppliers, we sourced solely from these suppliers. As our scale has grown, we've also shown a consistent track record of translating that growth into greater efficiency. This track record and ongoing efforts to verticalize our sterile compounding operations support our ongoing pursuit to make GLP-1 offerings increasingly accessible. Recently, we strategically reduced prices across compounded GLP-1 treatment plans by as much as 20%, extending accessible care to an even broader population. In the quarters ahead, we'll also continue expanding the breadth of options accessible through our platform. Our technology and vertically integrated infrastructure are unlocking new levels of personalization, most recently with the addition of microdosing options for compounded semiglutide treatments. It's allowing us to deliver what we believe is the most high-touch, patient-centered experience in the market. And as we help more customers find the right treatment and support providers in evolving patient care, we're continuing to strengthen that leadership position. Put simply, we're making it easier for more customers to start, stay on, and succeed in their own weight loss journey, and we're confident that we'll continue to drive results for a growing set of customers by doing so. We're also extending the benefits of our consumer-centric approach to new specialties. We believe recent launches supporting low testosterone and menopause unlock significant long-term growth opportunities, and increase our ability to deepen relationships with existing subscribers while expanding access to care for millions more. The current state of hormone healthcare in the U.S. reflects the exact challenge Hens and Hers was designed for. Conditions that impact millions, available treatment options that can make a real difference, and a system that still makes access far too hard. We're changing that. Millions of men experience symptoms of low testosterone, but face stigma, confusion, or limited access to effective care. Our recent launch aims to address these issues with access to personalized, provider-guided treatment plans supported by at-home lab testing. While still early, the response to this launch has already indicated an immediate product market fit, and we're actively optimizing both the experience and the operational engine behind this offering to meet the strong demand. Through our perimenopause and menopause offering, we're addressing one of the biggest gaps in women's health. Nearly 1.3 million women in the U.S. enter menopause each year, yet only 30% of OBGYN residency programs offer formal training on how to treat it. Our new HERS offering helps close this gap by providing access to personalized care and support designed specifically for women during this stage of life. We expect this offering to become a meaningful growth driver as the HERS brand reaches more women and scales towards $1 billion in annual revenue in 2026. Together, these launches expand our reach across life stages and conditions, and more importantly, they lay the groundwork for the next era where HIMSS and HERS can change the status quo for millions of customers, proactive health, and diagnostics. We plan to launch comprehensive whole-body lab testing before year-end, which will represent a significant step forward in this evolution. By scaling capabilities like blood testing, we're thrilled to help more customers affordably access the insights they need to monitor, maintain, and improve their overall health. We envision these capabilities empowering consumers to proactively address health concerns such as vitamin deficiencies, unoptimized hormonal levels, and genetic risk factors, while also identifying early indicators of more serious conditions like cancer and cardiovascular disease. Historically, people have come to us to manage existing conditions. Soon, we'll help them take a more proactive role in managing their health, and in doing so, can potentially impact millions of lives. Our goal is to one day help identify and manage risks associated with heart disease, metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer long before symptoms appear. We believe our platform is uniquely positioned to make this possible. We have the lab testing capabilities to give customers and providers deeper health insights. We have the provider network and compounding infrastructure in place to help take action against those insights. and we have a strengthening data feedback loop that can help measure, adapt, and refine care at scale. We believe that combination positions him and hers to do what few others in healthcare can, turn data into tailored action for millions of people. These capabilities, alongside our California-based peptide manufacturing facility, which is actively onshoring R&D for core peptide applications, form the foundation of the longevity specialty we plan to launch in 2026. We plan to scale the specialty to feature a broad range of therapies in addition to our new testing options. Over time, we expect these will include peptides, coenzymes, GLP and GIP treatments designed to improve performance, recovery, and cardiometabolic longevity markers. Each of these initiatives are part of a broader effort to make advanced diagnostics and the care that follows more accessible. Through investment and when appropriate partnerships, we expect this type of care, which has historically been accessible only to a small affluent subset of the population, available to each of our customers. Finally, our success in the U.S. and U.K. gives us real conviction that our model can scale globally. We believe that this team, vision, and balance sheet we have in place are uniquely positioned to scale a leading consumer health platform globally. In Europe, our acquisition of Zaba Global gives us the infrastructure to serve customers across the UK, Germany, France, Ireland, and Spain. We're now reaching a total addressable market of more than 200 million adults across these regions, and the early response continues to validate how naturally our model translates. Next, we're preparing to launch in Canada in the near future. notably expanding our North America presence. With two-thirds of Canadian adults overweight or living with obesity, we're incredibly excited about this opportunity to make high-touch care more accessible. We are in active discussions with leading generic manufacturers to ensure that once semi-glutide becomes available in generic form in 2026, we are ready to deliver access through our platform. Looking ahead, we see international markets as a powerful long-term growth opportunity, representing more than $1 billion in potential annual revenue. We're deploying meaningful capital to bring the hims and hers experience to more customers across the UK and broader European markets, where we see a significant opportunity to scale our model and deepen our presence. We believe Hens and Hers will soon become the largest global consumer health platform, unlocking access to direct-to-consumer personalized care for more customers than any company in the world. This approach extends across our entire business. The runway for growth and the opportunity to drive accelerating adoption across a wide range of conditions and health concerns are clear. We'll keep investing in what matters most, expanding our reach deepening engagement, and broadening our capabilities, allowing customers to manage and improve their health on one single platform. Since founding this company, I've never been more excited than I am right now. The future of healthcare is ours to build, and we are building it piece by piece. With that, I'll pass it over to Yemi to talk through our financial performance and updated outlook for 2025.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Andrew. I'll start by providing an overview of our third quarter financial results before going deeper into our final outlook for 2025. In the third quarter, our commitment to doing more for our customers drove another period of exceptional growth and expansion. By consistently introducing new innovative offerings and broadening the range of specialties we support, we're systematically increasing the number of individuals we are able to reach and help. This growing breadth of care, anchored in a precision medicine-based approach, is enabling us to reach customers at multiple points throughout their healthcare journey and evolve with them as their needs change. During the third quarter, revenue grew 49% year-over-year to nearly $600 million, while adjusted EBITDA margins were above 13%. In the third quarter, our subscriber base increased sequentially by more than 30,000, reflecting a year-over-year growth rate of 20%. We see the formation of a robust foundation of multi-year growth levers across three key areas of our portfolio. Offerings under our HIMS brand in the U.S., offerings under our HERS brand in the U.S., and an expanding portfolio of international markets. Within our HIMS brand, we are making a deliberate effort to transition away from generic on-demand sexual health solutions towards more personalized daily treatment offerings that allow providers to address a wider spectrum of needs. Excluding the impact of the current sexual transition, subscribers in the third quarter grew north of 40% year over year. Our expectation is that the effects of this transition will meaningfully dissipate in the second half of next year. We believe that these dynamics, in conjunction with the launch of new offerings such as testosterone, will result in accelerating growth in the second half of 2026 within our HIMSS portfolio. Switching to HRS, we've seen the collective offerings on our HRS brand grow near or above triple digits for the last several years, and are now on pace to deliver revenue of over $1 billion in 2026. We expected the addition of new specialties such as menopause, diagnostics, and longevity to continue driving strong growth across the Hearst portfolio. Before going deeper into the investments we are making to drive growth across our strategic areas, I'll provide an overview of profitability dynamics. During the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA grew more than 50% year-over-year to $78 million, offering another strong proof point of our team's ability to execute with discipline and deliver results consistent within our capital allocation framework. Adjusted EBITDA margins increased relative to the prior year, a significant leverage on our marketing spend, more than offset higher costs, and we continue to benefit from investments that are enabling us to scale new specialties, expand our global footprint, and further elevate the talent across the organization. In particular, we're making meaningful investments in talent across our technology organization as we build out the team and infrastructure that will power our next phase of expansion. Marketing as a percentage of revenue is 39%, representing more than six points of leverage year over year. We continue to see acquisition gains through lower cost and non-paid channels, benefits from higher retention as more subscribers benefit from personalized offerings, and a more stable backdrop within our weight loss offerings. Each of these factors has resulted in leverage from revenue growth outpacing marketing and investment. Gross margins declined over two points quarter over quarter to 74% as tailwinds from continued growth and non-weight specialties were offset by lower inter-quarter revenue recognized per shipment from certainly lost offerings due to shorter shipping cadences. G&A costs were also pressured as a result of the Zava integration, as well as additional expenses related to the hiring of new leadership talent. G&A as a percentage of revenue increased two points year over year. A similar dynamic was seen in operations and support costs. Technology and development costs as a percentage of revenue increased nearly two points year-over-year to 7%, reflecting ongoing investment in engineering and product talent across the organization. We expect to continue investing in this area over the coming quarters as these initiatives enhance the customer experience and drive long-term financial returns. We believe these investments will pay back over the mid to long term in the form of reduced costs from greater efficiency, but more importantly, unlocking new growth factors for the company in the future. Our priorities center around long-term free cash flow generation, and each of the investments we are making today set the foundation for greater free cash flow generation in the future. In the third quarter, cash flow from operations was $149 million, which translated into free cash flow of $79 million. At quarter end, we had over $1.1 billion of cash, short-term, and long-term investments, of which $630 million was held in cash and short-term investments. The strength of our cash flow and balance sheet places us in a unique position to strategically deploy capital to expand both organically as well as through strategic MA opportunities. We believe this to be a meaningful differentiator and opportunity to cement our leadership position as we do not believe that there is a peer in our space that has the resources and expertise to do the same. Similar to prior quarters, we expect to invest across the following areas. First is continued verticalization and expansion of personalized capabilities within our facilities. In the coming quarters, we expect our operational footprint and capabilities to continue to expand. We enter the year with a facility footprint of just under 400,000 square feet and expect to leave the year with a footprint north of 1 million. This will enable us to unlock additional form factors like gummies across a broader set of specialties, increase capacity for fulfillment of sterile offerings, as well as leverage insights from diagnostic capabilities to have an even more comprehensive set of multi-condition offerings. While we expect to see retention and acquisition benefits across each of our specialties, this will be a particularly important component with respect to one, broadening the appeal of our sexual offering while we transition from on-demand offerings towards daily solutions, and two, leveraging verticalization to make higher complexity offerings inclusive of our weight loss and testosterone solutions more affordable with minimal long-term margin sacrifices. Second, we plan to continue expanding the breadth of solutions and enhancing the customer experience across our new specialties. In the third quarter, we were pleased to launch our low testosterone offering and have already seen strong interest from our current subscriber base. In the fourth quarter, we have launched solutions for perimenopause and menopause support and plan to launch comprehensive lab testing diagnostics, both of which we believe will be meaningful accelerants to the business. We expect continued investments in our facilities will enable us to broaden solutions within these specialties, as well as reduce costs of verticalization. Third, we continue to see strategic investments partnerships, and collaborations as powerful tools to extend our impact and advance our mission. Our recent investment in GRIL exemplifies this approach. Through these initiatives, we see real opportunity to leverage our balance sheet to strengthen relationships across the broader healthcare ecosystem. Over time, these efforts can make new and innovative developments in healthcare more accessible to a broader portion of the population. Fourth, we expect to make meaningful investments in the capabilities of our technology platform. We believe the breadth of data on our platform and its utility value in helping our subscribers optimize their health will meaningfully increase with the launch of deeper diagnostic testing from our offerings. This can come in the form of data-driven treatment recommendations, chatbots to enable faster non-clinical customer solutions, or AI-assisted tools such as nutritional coaches. We are already seeing early wins and look forward to bringing deeper updates on this front in the future. Lastly, Our mission to help the world feel great through the power of better health does not have borders. Success in the UK was a catalyst in our expansion into Germany, France, Ireland, and Spain through the Zava acquisition, and soon we will add Canada to that list. The strength of our balance sheet and the considerable cashflow profile we built in the US position us to deploy capital into these more nascent markets in a disciplined way. Additionally, we expect to meaningfully scale our operations in the UK with more investment and expanded capabilities and reinforcement of our brand given signals around the significant opportunity that we see. Further refinement of our playbook unlocks our potential to expand in Brazil, Australia, and other Latin American and Asian markets in the future. HIMSS and HERS is undergoing another significant evolution on multiple fronts. Technology, new capabilities, new specialties, as well as expanding geographical coverage. One of the most exciting shifts will come from what our upcoming launch of comprehensive whole body diagnostic testing will bring. Currently, consumers come to our platform seeking a solution for a known condition that they want help with. With deeper diagnostics, we believe we'll be able to orient toward a model that allows subscribers to proactively manage their health in pursuit of healthier and longer lives. This will enable us to attract a broader set of consumers as well as deepen engagement with our current subscribers. Over the coming quarters, we expect to elevate investment to unlock capabilities to improve the experience we bring to current and future subscribers. Investment will be focused on accelerating adoption and new specialties, enhancing our technical talent to build the next generation technology platform, and cementing our leadership position by delivering greater value to our subscribers. Our capital allocation framework will remain in place, and we believe, similar to past investment periods, we will realize a meaningful return on these investments in the future. With that, I'll double click into our outlook for the remainder of the year. In the fourth quarter, we expect revenue to be between $605 to $625 million, representing a year-over-year growth rate of between 26 and 30%. We are anticipating adjusted EBITDA in the range of 55 to 65 million, reflecting a 10% margin at the midpoint. For the full year, we expect revenue to be between 2.335 and 2.355 billion, reflecting a year-over-year increase that ranges from 58 to 59%. We are anticipating adjusted EBITDA in the range of 307 to 317 million, reflecting a 13% margin at the midpoint. Behind our outlook are the following assumptions. First, we expect the migration fulfillment for sterile weight loss products to 503 facilities to drive between 20 to $25 million of headwinds in the fourth quarter from shorter shipment cadences that result in less revenue recognized per shipment. This dynamic will normalize in the second half of 2026 as the cohorts of customers refilling their orders accumulate. We are making meaningful investments to expand our internal 503 sterile fulfillment capacity. Progress on this front gave us conviction to make GLP-1s more accessible through lowering the price points for our two-month, four-month, and six-month offerings in the fourth quarter. This is expected to come with near-term margin headwinds that will normalize in the second half of next year as we continue to progress with the verticalization of our sterile fulfillment capabilities. Second, we continue to expect at least $50 million of incremental revenue from Zava in the second half of the year. Since closing the acquisition in July, momentum has been strong, and we're actively deploying resources in our proven consumer-centric playbook to capture the significant market opportunities we see across Europe. Lastly, we expect the continued moderation in our on-demand sexual health business to persist in the near term, though these headwinds should begin to ease in 2026 as daily sexual health subscribers and multi-condition treatment plans become a larger share of the mix. The ongoing shift for personalized offerings remains a key driver of long-term revenue retention, supporting our target of 85% or higher, positioning the business for more durable, recurring growth over time. As Andrew mentioned, we're excited to be in a position where we can confidently invest in the long-term trajectory of our business. We expect these investments to start in the fourth quarter and continue through 2026 as we scale new categories, build a larger presence in new markets, and begin driving greater value to subscribers through innovative partnerships. While this may result in a temporary pause in the year-over-year margin expansion, we believe these investments will meaningfully extend the reach of our platform around the world. With the immense opportunity in front of us, our conviction remains high in our ability to meet or exceed the 2030 targets we established earlier this year. At least $6.5 billion in revenue and $1.3 billion in adjusted EBITDA. Our success would not be possible without the significant efforts of HIMS and HERS employees around the world. I'd like to thank them, our subscribers, and our shareholders for supporting us in our mission to help the world feel great through the power of better health. With that, I'll turn it back to Bill to kick off Q&A with two questions from our retail investor community.

speaker
Bill Newby
Head of Investor Relations

Thanks, Yemi, and thank you to all the investors who sent in questions over the weekend. We received a number of questions on the upcoming launches of lab testing and our longevity offering. This one comes from Nick G. What is the timeline to release a full-stack subscription service that includes at-home testing and additional products and services like peptides and a broader longevity offering? What are the biggest hurdles to this type of rollout?

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thanks, Nick, for that question. Great question. We are extremely excited about both of those three categories. As we share in the prepared remarks, we will be launching the whole-body lab testing on the platform very soon before the year end. I think this is a really exciting one for me personally. I mean, this is a set of tests that historically cost me and my family upwards of anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 for this type of comprehensive testing, and we'll be bringing it to market for an absolute fraction of that cost. So really an incredibly powerful opportunity for true equalization for anybody out there to be able to get a sense of where their body's at, where their family is standing, and the people that they love making sure that they're getting ahead of any issues that they're unaware of. I think this testing lays the foundation for the longevity specialty that we mentioned, which, again, is a really exciting new category. This specialty will be coming to market in 2026 and will include a really wide range of treatments from on-market peptides, coenzymes, GLP, GIP treatments. All of that will be designed and blended with performance, recovery, cardiometabolic, longevity markers as the core optimization of choice. So this is a category that is, again, leading the charge on health and wellness. It's something that very few have access to today. And I think the great equalization and bringing this to more people is going to be something that's going to be incredibly powerful. You know, in that category, we're also hopeful that the current administration can help further expand access to more of these peptides. I think there's a growing list of them from BPC-157 and TB500 and others where research is starting to show real health and longevity benefits. And I think expanded care there is just going to be great for customers. I think the other advantage we have in this category, which is an exciting one, is As you all remember, we acquired the California-based peptide manufacturing plant, and that facility is up and running and operating and currently onshoring a lot of R&D that I think is going to be, you know, very important for the vast range of options on the peptide side that will be a part of this future category.

speaker
Bill Newby
Head of Investor Relations

Thanks, Andrew. The next question comes from the Hemp's House community and focuses on some of the trends we're seeing in our longer-tenured businesses. The question is, earlier this year, you indicated the core business was meeting or exceeding expectations. It's now clear that we've started to see some growth deceleration in a few of these places. How confident are you that you'll be able to reaccelerate core growth over the coming quarters, and what specific levers can you pull, and what's the realistic timeline to see these results?

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, thanks for the question, Tim South. I think what we see is we see the world rapidly evolving with new specialties, and we see the specialties more and more becoming a blend of one another. I think as we look at some of the new capabilities that we'll have later this year, such as diagnostics, I think that's only going to further accelerate. And so we increasingly see each of the components that we outlined and Andrew laid out and the vision for where the company is going to in the future. As really becoming part of the core offering. And so we spoke around this a little bit on the prepared remarks, but we increasingly look at the business across a few strategic areas. The first is HIMSS-US. The next is then our HERS-US business. And finally, we see a great deal of opportunity in the international markets. As we look around, you know, just the scale and the footprint of opportunities, which in each of those strategic areas, We see several growth factors that have the ability to not only continue to drive strong growth, but potentially accelerate it in the second half. So this could be new specialties, you know, such as testosterone in the HIMSS brand or menopause and longevity in the HERS brand. And so as we also start to shift towards being able to proactively help consumers manage their care with lab diagnostics, I think these trends are only going to accelerate. We spoke about some of, you know, some of the near-term headwinds that we're seeing this year with respect to the shift towards the daily sexual health consumers and away from the on-demand sexual health users, as well as some of the dynamics around the shorter weight loss cadences. As we start to, you know, turn the corner around those in the second half of the year, we remain very confident that we'll see both the hims and hers businesses not only remain strong, strong growth drivers, but also potentially accelerate growth in the future.

speaker
Bill Newby
Head of Investor Relations

Thanks, Yemi, and thanks again to everyone who sent in questions. With that, I will pass it back to the operator to begin the regular way analyst Q&A.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We ask that participants please limit themselves to one question and one follow-up question. Your first question comes from the line of Justin Patterson with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

speaker
Justin Patterson
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Great. Thank you, and good afternoon. Andrew, as diagnostic capabilities ramp up, how do you envision the pace in which you provide personalized treatments and expand into new specialties changes? And then related to that, how might you adjust your marketing efforts to make more consumers aware of just this expanded offering? Thank you.

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, great question, Justin. I think it's going to rapidly accelerate the pace of bringing new products to market. You know, when you can understand everything from nutrient deficiencies to pre-kind of genetic risk markers, you know, your ability to adapt to the assortment and skew and hyper-personalize just accelerates. And so, you know, we shared with prepared remarks that, you know, by the year end, we'll be, you know, north of a million square feet of infrastructure. and have really built what I think is gold standard and true high-quality compounding capabilities, my hope is that the diagnostics open up a real floodgate of opportunity for hyperpersonalization. On the marketing side, I think it's a really big change, which is a really exciting one. I think historically the business has been very much direct marketing focused given the very stigmatized conditions that we offer, things like hair loss, sexual health, et cetera. When you start getting into diagnostics, when you start getting into longevity, whole body health, wellness, these are categories that you want to talk about. They're categories that you want to share with the people you love, right? They're categories you want to share with your family. You know, there are products within this offering that I personally have been, you know, buying for my family for years because I just want my loved ones to have access to them. So I do think there's going to be a really structural change in how you see the hims and hers brand show up, the types of messaging that is going to be going out there. I think this ultimately allows for great long-term leverage in the business, which is really exciting, but also just can really transform how people know our business to be. Instead of coming just for acute issues, I think there's an opportunity here to build a platform globally where not only tens of millions, but hundreds of millions of people can rely on you to help get ahead of health and help get proactive with health. And I think you're really going to see that show up in the transformation of the brand and the types of messaging and the types of places that we're showing up.

speaker
Justin Patterson
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Great. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from the line of Maria Ripps with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

speaker
Maria Ripps
Analyst, Canaccord Genuity

Great, thanks so much for taking my question. I just wanted to ask about sort of your approach to the portfolio of GLP-1 solutions on the platform, especially if the NOVA partnership moves forward. And I guess, are there any other GLP-1 solutions that you may add sort of to the specialty? And then secondly, can you maybe talk about sort of consumer price sensitivity to compounded GLP-1s at this point, and how do you see those sort of price reductions impacting demand? Thank you so much.

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thanks, Maria. Great question. I'll talk to the first part and then maybe jump on the second. Generally, I think breadth and assortment and choice for patients is the winning formula. So, we're excited to be able to, you know, reengage with NOVA about the Wagovi pill that is hopefully to be FDA approved as well as the commercial dosing. You know, I think they and others will have more and more innovation coming. There's also obviously advancements in biotech that are in phase two and phase three trials that have next generation GLP-1 and GIP. dual and triagonal opportunities. So our stance is that breadth and assortment and choice ultimately gives each individual more personalized abilities to just have great outcomes. And so you'll see us continue to pursue a wide range of treatments here. I think generally it's inevitable that partnerships like this where we are, you know, the largest consumer distribution platform in healthcare and others are, you know, the best in bringing, you know, new therapeutic innovations to market, you know, those types of companies should be working together ultimately. So I think you're going to see more of that in the ecosystem, but it's definitely something that we have, you know, a lot of brainpower on and are making sure that as advancements in the next generation comes, we have great relationships with the teams and they understand the opportunities that we can have together.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, and then to hit the second part of your question, Maria, I think our weight loss specialty follows a very similar principle that we've deployed across our historical specialties. And that centers around, you know, scaling, verticalizing and optimizing, then passing the value and the savings, you know, back to our subscribers. And so we do see, you know, across both our weight loss specialty, you know, inclusive of the orals as well as GLP-1s is, The high touch model that we have for providers really is resonating with our subscribers. We see strong retention across the platform. Our view that as we, similar to other specialties that we've done within the past, As we're able to make the price points more accessible to a broader base of users, that will enable us to continue to draw on a broader audience. And so we see some very early promising signs with some of the recent changes that we've made. We're excited to continue to invest to verticalize our operations at a high-quality standard to continue to pass those benefits back to our subscribers.

speaker
Maria Ripps
Analyst, Canaccord Genuity

Great. Thanks so much for the call.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

from the line of Craig Heddenbach with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

speaker
Craig Heddenbach
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yes, thank you. First question is just on the HERS business and the color of kind of approaching a billion in revenue in 2026. Can you just touch on just the cadence of the new menopause products, like how much that may move the needle, or do you expect kind of the growth to be driven mainly by the existing products going into 2026?

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I can speak a little bit to that, Craig, and Yemi, feel free to jump in. You know, I think HRRS has a really nice range of growth drivers. You know, we talked about in the last couple quarters that growth rate being triple digits or around there, and I think there's – know real path over the next few years for it to maintain that type of of trajectory you've got legacy categories quote legacy that are a few years old on the dermatology side that are still growing extremely quickly you've got obviously the the oral weight business the personalized weight business on the glp side that is growing very robustly and then i think these new categories in hormonal health, perimenopause, as well as longevity, and diagnostics are going to be very, very important for women and this demographic. So it's a business line that I think has four or five different growth engines. It's a Probably one of the more exciting parts for me of the business, just because you're able to see the platform extend to completely new audiences, different ages, different demographics, and completely new therapeutic categories. But it's one where there's real diversity coming from the composition of that growth.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think just to add, you know, a couple of things to that, you know, Craig, I think what we also just see, you know, as the Hearst platform, you know, has scaled our ability to invest in the brands distinctly, you know, continues to increasingly elevate. So now with the broader set of portfolio that we have across things like mental health, the menopausal support, care, weight, seem to be diagnostics. I think similar to what we saw with HIMSS, that just gives us a broader spectrum with which to speak to our consumer base and to capture them early in their journey. We also see that, as Andrew mentioned, diagnostics as being a key evolution point for the company that will benefit both the HIMSS business and HERS business. I think that will enable us to proactively help consumers manage their care. And so while we're very excited by that business on a standalone basis, its ability to also highlight newer specialties that we should be entering or personalize the treatments in a more precise fashion, I think will not only increase retention, but also broaden the subscriber base that we're able to reach, not only within the Hearst business, but also the Hintz business as well.

speaker
Craig Heddenbach
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Great. And then just as my follow-up, Yemi, I appreciate the color on the investments you're making in the business. You kind of alluded to a temporary pause in margins. Is it possible margins could contract your year in 2026 before you see the follow-through, or do you think Despite these investments, you can kind of hold ground on margins into next year.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think it's a bit, you know, too early to, you know, give, you know, specific color around 2026. The teams are actively undergoing the, you know, the plans. I think, you know, we're following a similar investment thesis to what we deployed in the past, you know, somewhere in 2023 where we lean into investment. Within a couple quarters, we started to see, you know, rapid margin expansion. I think here we have a much broader set of levers, and I think what also just gives us the conviction in these investments that they will be accretive. Some of them will be new capabilities and new specialties. I think we have a broad set of options to verticalize and optimize the unit economics on some of those new specialties. It gives a great deal of confidence. I think we're also investing in things like talent that tend to have an exponential and asymmetric ROI. As those folks come in and start to really just change the capabilities and the trajectory for what our technology platform can do, we see a significant amount of upside. And so I think we're, you know, it's a little bit too early to give you a specifics around 2026 guide, but we do see an immense opportunity, not just for future growth levers, but for continued free cash flow generation, as well as, you know, in the midterm, extensive margin expansion that we've seen in prior quarters as well.

speaker
Craig Heddenbach
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Tanquilu with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brian Tanquilu
Analyst, Jefferies

Hey, good afternoon, guys, and congrats on the quarter. Maybe just on the topic of cash flows, I mean, buybacks were kind of strong in the quarter. Just curious how you're thinking about capital deployment towards buybacks versus obviously you're spending a good amount of capital on capex.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think we have the luxury of very strong free operating cash flow, as well as a very strong cash position. I think similar to prior quarters, any time where we see that there is a meaningful disconnect in the valuation of the company, the market value relative to its intrinsic value, we will step in and act. And so I think in the prior quarter, we did see those dynamics take play with some of the volatility that we saw in our stock. So we opted to lean in. That said, I think that, you know, the first and foremost priority will always be around investing in the appropriate levers to grow the business. That includes, you know, like we talked about earlier in the prepared remarks, extending the set of personalized capabilities, you know, that we have to offer our patients, investing in the overall platform, as well as in international markets. But I think we just have the luxury of a very strong balance sheet and very strong cash flow we're able to do all of those things while at the same time realize, you know, disconnects between the intrinsic value and the market value when there's a rush.

speaker
Brian Tanquilu
Analyst, Jefferies

Got it. And then I guess my follow-up, as I think about, you know, obviously in the press release, you talked about the negotiations with Novo. As we think about your decision to bring down price on your GLPs and those conversations, I'm just curious, what are the negotiating points? What are the discussion topics that are kind of holding that agreement back right now, or what will it take to get it over the line? And then maybe just thinking about what the pros and cons are for rolling out a Novo product here, both for you and me, for Novo. Thanks.

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Brett. I can probably answer that, and for better or worse, not give you too much information, but there's probably not much we can share on the specific conversations that have been going with Novo. I think we're excited to be engaging with them, and I think Mike is a great new leader for the organization. Generally, like I've said, we believe and have always said breadth of options for patients is best. you know, we're a platform where we hope to give people the absolute right course of treatment, the right course of care, and connect them with providers that can help them make those decisions. And so from our perspective, you know, we are constantly engaging with great innovative therapeutics, great innovative diagnostic companies, et cetera, next-gen biotech companies, because we just want to make sure that HIMSS and HERS truly does represent the must-have in healthcare over time. And ultimately, you know, our job is to fight on behalf of everyday people to hopefully bring that to them at a price that is truly affordable to them and their family.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Percher with Nephron Research. Please go ahead.

speaker
Eric Percher
Analyst, Nephron Research

Thank you. I'd like to check in on weight loss growth components versus your initial expectations for the year. Ask if you're still on path for $725 million for the year or better, and a little bit of context on how the compound versus oral market has developed.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks for the question, Eric. Yeah, I think the short answer is we see continued strength across each component of the weight loss specialty. The oral business continues to remain robust and grow at healthy rates. A lot of that is driven by the fact that there's broader eligibility requirements for oral offering, as well as there's the ability to reach a broader audience of people that may be apprehensive around injectables. They're also at a price point where users are able to access them at a lower price but still realize, you know, over half of the benefits that they're able to see, you know, on the injectable side. We also continue to see the, you know, the GLP-1 offering remain strong as well, and so we are on pace to achieve the $725 million or greater, you know, target that we put forth earlier this year.

speaker
Eric Percher
Analyst, Nephron Research

And on the personalized compounded side, You know, you provided us with 20 to 25 million headwind. Was that, did I catch that as 4Q? And could you just kind of speak to the cadence as you off-boarded the commercial doses into 3Q, into 2Q to 3Q to 4Q? Help us a little bit there.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so I think a lot of the, you know, the drop that you saw earlier this year between the first quarter and the second quarter, that was primarily the result of off-boarding the commercially available Justin Delacruz- There's just the subscribers are wrong, I think, as we look you know to you know what's going to you know transpire over the next couple of quarters. Justin Delacruz- What's effectively you know occurred is we started to ship the glp ones in smaller smaller shipments. The net effect of that is we recognize our revenue on when shipments occur, not necessarily when the consumers place their orders. So we continue to see very strong order velocity, but because we're shipping in smaller cadences, that's effectively what's driving the headwind in the back half of this year that you see that we expect will materialize in the $20 to $25 million headwind. Now what happens is as those consumers renew, because they're on a smaller or shorter cadence, As they renew, they renew more frequently throughout the year. And so what happens is you see a stacking of cohorts that kind of compounds each quarter. So our expectation is by the time we get to the back half of next year, this dynamic will largely normalize. And so it's less around internal dynamics around the business, and it's more around just like the adjustments to the shipping profile, cadence profile that we have for our subscribers.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from the line of Ryan McDonald with Needle. Please go ahead.

speaker
Ryan McDonald
Analyst, Needle

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Andrew, I wanted to start on international dynamics. You've got Zaba obviously under your belt now for about a quarter. I'm just curious as you've gotten more comfortable and familiar with that business and started to spend more time in international markets of how much is the sort of the HIMSS messaging and approach resonating with outside of the U.S. market, and how is that informing sort of this international expansion plan? And as you think about these markets, it sounds like there's some pretty aggressive expansion. I feel like there's a unique aspect within each country that sort of changes the dynamics of how care is provided. How do you and what investments do you need to make to sort of scale your network of clinicians as you continue to broaden your reach internationally? Thanks.

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, thanks, Ryan. That's a great question. Yeah, I think Zara has been a wonderful first bite into the international space. You know, immediately a creative acquisition, just great team, great operational capabilities and incredible learnings. You know, they've already moved through quite a few markets already, which is, you know, been really fun to watch. I think probably the best takeaway so far is that, you know, we think the demand is the same as here in the U.S., whether it's a national system, insurance-based system, it kind of doesn't matter. I mean, I think the global frustration with access to great healthcare is consistent wherever you live. The time it takes to meet with specialists, the quality of the care, the high-touch nature of the care, the personalized aspects of that care, the cost of that care, I mean, it's really, really quite consistent. And so we are, I think, given that, as well as given, I think, our confidence in what we believe is a really scalable operating model here in the U.S. Like, I think we've, over the last eight years, optimized what we think is the winning formula, the winning experience for customers. I think we are now accelerating our ability to bring that into very key markets. And so as we shared, Canada will be going live in the near future. We're already in great conversations with all the major generic manufacturers up there in anticipation of the generic semi-glutide, which goes live in 2026. We believe the Brazilian market is a really interesting market where we'll be spending time further deepening investments in the UK likely, as well as other smaller markets in Australia and Japan, et cetera. So generally, I think we have a really good grasp of the competitive landscape in these markets. the consumer distinctions, the local dynamics to be aware of, the regulatory differences to be aware of. And so the experience might be slightly different in each. To your point, there might be nuances in positioning or in marketing or in offering. But generally, I think the frustration with care and the demand for a higher touch consumer centric care is very much widespread. And I think we have the team and the ambition and maybe the, you know, the crazy, just a little bit of craziness in us, right, to go and attack this and be the winner quite quickly across all of these major markets.

speaker
Ryan McDonald
Analyst, Needle

I really appreciate it. Maybe from a follow-up perspective, I wanted to ask on sort of whole body lab testing and how that might be structured or packaged or integrated within some of the other offerings like menopausal health, low T, um, longevity, um, into next year. Um, unless we're mistaken, I think that what we've seen in the experience and our experience on the, on sort of the whole body testing market, especially in a cost, uh, effective man, efficient manner for the consumer is it, it might, it can tend to be a bit lower margin business from a gross margin perspective. So one is that, is that what you're seeing or is that a risk from launching a standalone whole body lab testing offering or, If so, how are you going to package it with maybe more longitudinal offerings on the HIMSS platform to sort of enable that sort of what's called strong LTV to CAC as we think about over the next year or two? Thanks.

speaker
Andrew Dudum
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, it's a great question, Ryan. You know, I think we're a really unique company in our ability to bring at-home lab testing or lab testing to the masses because our business is in helping people be healthier, right? So we do not long-term need to make huge margin off of these tests, which is distinctly different from everybody in market. It's distinctly different from major lab testing companies, other competitors that have diagnostics. Our business is ultimately helping you feel great and helping you get ahead and helping you refine what that personalized care should be and then acting on it. And so, I think to your point, there will, over time, probably be a really nice mix of both standalone diagnostic opportunities, which then lead yet into advanced treatment care, as well as bundled services for diagnostics in core treatment pathways, like you've seen with testosterone. I think you'll see that kind of continue to expand. So I think there'll be a nice diversity there, but ultimately my ambition as we have done in the past is to bring these offerings to market, verticalize the infrastructure over time, which we've already started to do with our tribe acquisition and other investments when it comes to lab diagnostics. Establish that, systematize that, bring the cost down to incredible levels where you can really and truly undermine most of the peers on price and give customers huge access to this information and then ultimately be the trusted partner that can help them take that information and be incredibly action-oriented and precise with what the next step should be, how the personalized care should follow, and the hand-holding through that cadence. So I think we're really uniquely positioned to do exactly what you're talking about, but I think there's a true distinction with us, given the fact that, you know, our core business is to help keep you healthy and keep you on top of these issues. And also, we have the ability to verticalize this infrastructure in a way that can leverage testing as lead gen into the platform.

speaker
Ryan McDonald
Analyst, Needle

Appreciate the call there. Thanks, Andrew.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from the line of Jonah Kemp with TD Cowan. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jonah Kemp
Analyst, TD Cowan

Thank you for taking my question. You've seen nice leverage on the marketing side. Just curious if there has been any changes in your marketing strategy or approach. And as you think about the new year, how are you thinking about the marketing, especially around the Super Bowl and just lapping your great success last year? Thank you.

speaker
Yemi Okupe
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, thanks for the question, Jonah. I think we see, you know, a couple different levers that we're able to deliver very strong marketing leverage, both on the court as well across the year. One is, like, we do see, you know, that there is significant leverage coming from the fact that we see more and more acquisition coming from both organic channels as well as the lower-cost, lower-cost channels. I think as we start to push further into the comprehensive whole body testing that we spoke around earlier, that dynamic is likely to continue to get better and better as we kind of optimize and tune that engine. We also see from the shift of more and more users opting for personalized solutions, the retention is becoming stronger and stronger. And most of the marketing spend that we have is either around educating consumers around the overall brand or acquiring new users. And so as we see retention elevate, we inherently get leverage on that front. Now, what we do see is we have a wide array of different growth opportunities in front of us, or that will be coming in front of us in the coming quarters. That is some of the newer specialties that we've launched, such as testosterone, menopausal support, elevating our presence in some of the markets where we've already seen success, like the UK, as well as some of the markets that we are going to enter in the near future, such as Canada. And so I think we're not going to, you know, be shy, you know, around investing. That said, I think we're going to do so in a way that's consistent with our historical capital allocation framework that calls for the payback period of one year, that basically positions the ecosystem to benefit from greater and greater economies of scale, so that as we look a couple quarters down the road from those investments, you start to see some of the, you know, levers that we're enjoying right now from some of the investments we've made in the past. And so, okay, as we look in 2026, you know, as mentioned, the growth opportunity is probably even larger than what we anticipated before, so we will lean in and invest in that. That said, I think that the profile and our confidence in the ability to hit the 2030 targets, the $6.5 billion of revenue and $1.3 billion of EBITDA, you know, is only increasing.

speaker
Jonah Kemp
Analyst, TD Cowan

Got it. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining and you may now disconnect.

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