Integer Holdings Corporation

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Integer Holdings Corporation's first quarter 2026 earnings call. My name is Kate and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Please note this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kristen Stewart, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Integer's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me today are Pavement Kales, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dyron Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we issued a press release announcing our first quarter 2026 financial results. We have posted a presentation to accompany today's call on the investor relations page on our website at Integer.net. On today's call, Payman will provide opening comments. Dyron will then review our adjusted financial results for the first quarter, 2026, and our financial outlook. Payman will provide his closing remarks, and then we'll open the line for your questions. As a reminder, the results and data we discussed today reflect the consolidated results of integer for the periods indicated. During our call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to the appendix of today's presentation, today's earnings press release, and the trending schedules, which are available on our website at integer.net. Please note that today's presentation includes forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for a discussion of the risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. With that, I will turn the call over to Payman.

Thank you, Kristen. And thank you to everyone for joining the call today. This morning, we announced our first quarter financial results, which were in line with our February outlook. Sales were up 0.5% on a reported basis versus last year. As expected, our first quarter sales performance primarily reflected the decline associated with the three new products, which we first discussed last October, as well as the exit of our portable medical business. On an organic basis, sales grew 1.3% versus the prior year. Our adjusted operating income declined 230 basis points, driven primarily by lower fixed cost absorption. This was at the midpoint of our prior outlook commentary. Adjusted earnings per share totaled $1.20, benefiting from lower interest expense offset by the decline in adjusted operating income. We also announced this morning that we were updating our 2026 outlook ranges to reflect the recent customer forecast updates and further risk adjustments we have made. We now expect reported sales to be in the range of down 1 to 3% compared to the prior year. On an organic basis, we expect sales to be flat to down 1%. We continue to expect a 3 to 4% headwind from the three new products. The outlook for these three products has not changed. Customer purchase orders and forecast updates are tracking in line with this outlook. We now expect organic sales, excluding the three new products, to go approximately 3% to 4%. This is compared to our prior outlook of 4% to 6% and driven by recent customer forecast updates and further risk adjustments across our portfolio. As a reminder, we receive purchase orders from our customers, and those typically provide us with strong visibility for the next one to two quarters. In addition, we continuously communicate with our customers and most of them regularly share a rolling 12-month forecast. Our customers adjust their forecast higher or lower based on their manufacturing plans. Therefore, we typically risk adjust the forecast with a balanced view of the risk and opportunities. The recent customer forecast updates primarily affect the second half outlook for a few products in electrophysiology. Given our recent experience of reductions outside the three new products, We further risk adjusted our outlook across our portfolio to minimize the risk of additional forecast erosion. With regards to electrophysiology, over the last couple of years, this market has been very dynamic with the rapid adoption of pulse field ablation or PFA technologies, which added complexity to forecasting. Understandably, OEMs wanted to ensure sufficient availability of various products used in EP procedures to be prepared for a wide range of potential adoption scenarios. This contributed to increased variability in forecasts and ordering patterns. We appear to be entering a period of normalization in the market. We believe there is a clearer view of the market dynamics and needs for various EP products. As a result, certain customers have adjusted their forecasts for a few products. We expect the impact of these updates to be short-term, primarily impacting the second half of 2026. These reductions are not due to insourcing or a shift to alternative suppliers. We continue to manufacture these products for our customers. The electrophysiology market continues to be an attractive high growth market opportunity for us, and we believe we are well positioned. We have strong relationships with the leading players in the market, a broad product portfolio, and a strong new product pipeline. Our focus and investments have enabled us to significantly grow our EP business over the past several years. While we are seeing some pressure in 2026, we expect our EP business to contribute to our above-market growth in 2027 and to our growth profile over the long term. And finally, I want to emphasize that we do not take the outlook change lightly. Our outlook reflects additional cost reduction actions underway to mitigate the impact on our bottom line results that do not compromise our ability to service our customers, deliver on our 2027 sales outlook commitments, or affect our longer-term growth potential. I will now turn the call over to Darren to review the first quarter results and 2026 outlook in greater detail.

Thank you, Payman. Good morning, everyone, and thank you again for joining today's call. Our first quarter financial results were in line with the outlook commentary we shared in February. First quarter sales totaled $440 million, up 0.5% on a reported basis, and up 1.3% on an organic basis. As a reminder, organic sales growth removes the impact of acquisitions, the strategic exit of the portable medical market, and foreign currency fluctuations. We delivered $85 million of adjusted EBITDA, down $7 million compared to the prior year, with a decrease of 7%. Adjusted operating income declined 14% versus last year, and our adjusted operating margin contracted 230 basis points to 13.9%, both in line with our February outlook. Adjusted net income was $41 million, down 10% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share totaled $1.20, down 8% versus the same period last year. Turning to our sales performance by product line, Cardio and vascular sales increased 1% to $262 million in the first quarter of 2026, which primarily reflected lower electrophysiology sales from the two new products we have previously discussed. This was consistent with our expectations. On a trailing four-quarter basis, CMV sales increased 13% to $1,110,000,000, driven by growth in electrophysiology, contribution from acquisitions, and strong demand in neurovascular. Cardiac rhythm management neuromodulation sales increased 5% to $168 million in the first quarter of 2026. Cardiac rhythm management growth was partially offset by the previously communicated headwind in neuromodulation. This was consistent with our expectations. On a trailing four-quarter basis, CRM and NN sales increased 2% to $677 million. Cardiac rhythm management growth was partially offset by the planned decline related to an early spinal cord stimulation customer. Product line detail for other markets is included in the appendix of the presentation, which can be found on our website at integer.net. I'd now like to provide more color on the first quarter's profit performance compared to the prior year. In the first quarter 2026, adjusted net income decreased by $5 million and adjusted earnings per share decreased by 11 cents. Consistent with our expectations, the primary driver of our operational decline was lower fixed cost absorption, which affected our gross margin performance. We remained focused on effective cost management, reducing variable costs given the lower sales level, and being disciplined in our overhead and operating expense management. Operating expenses were flat versus the prior year, including a decline in selling, general, and administrative expenses, and a slight increase in research, development, and engineering expenses, due to the timing of milestone achievements for customer-funded new product development. As a reminder, the first quarter of the year typically has fewer milestones as compared to later in the year. Interest expense was $4 million lower than the prior year, which contributed 10 cents per share, reflecting the savings from the convertible debt offering completed in March 2025. Our adjusted effective tax rate was 19% versus 17.4% in the first quarter of 2025. We continue to expect our full year tax rate to be in the range of 16 to 18%. The adjusted weighted average shares outstanding in the quarter decreased by 2%, reflecting our share repurchase activity. In the fourth quarter 2025, we completed a $50 million share repurchase of approximately 700,000 shares, And in the first quarter, we completed an additional $50 million share repurchase of approximately 600,000 shares. The lower weighted average share count contributed two cents to adjusted earnings per share. In the first quarter of 2026, we generated $25 million of cash flow from operations, down $6 million from the prior year, primarily reflecting lower adjusted net income and reduced accounts receivable factoring. CapEx spend was $24 million, which resulted in free cash flow of $1 million. At the end of the first quarter, 2026, net total debt was $1,264,000,000, an increase of $74 million, primarily driven by the $50 million share repurchase executed in the quarter. Our net total debt leverage at the end of the first quarter was 3.2 times trailing four-quarter adjusted EBITDA within our strategic target range of 2.5 to 3.5 times. As Payman noted, we are updating our 2026 financial outlook ranges to reflect recent customer forecast updates and further risk adjustments across our portfolio. For the full year 2026, we now expect reported sales to be in the range of $1,805,000,000 to $1,835,000,000. On a year-over-year basis, we now expect sales to be down 1% to 3% on a reported basis and flat to down 1% on an organic basis. We have also adjusted our profitability outlook ranges. Given the lower sales outlook, we anticipate further margin pressure and are taking additional near-term cost actions to mitigate the profit impact, which are contemplated in our revised outlook. We now expect our adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $375 to $399 million, down 1 to 7% versus the prior year. We now expect adjusted operating income to be in the range of $285 to $305 million, down 5 to 11%, and adjusted net income to be in the range between $200 and $220 million, down 3 to 11% versus the prior year. Lastly, we now expect adjusted earnings per share of between $5.83 and $6.40, flat to down 9% versus the prior year. Taking a closer look at our sales outlook, as I mentioned, we expect sales to be down 1 to 3% on a reported basis and flat to down 1% on an organic basis. As we previously shared, our organic outlook is being impacted by lower sales of the three new products. We continue to expect the headwind to be approximately 3 to 4% to our 2026 reported growth. We now expect organic growth, excluding the three new products, to be approximately 3% to 4%. This compares to our prior expectation of 4% to 6%, reflecting the impact of recent customer forecast changes and further risk adjustments we have incorporated across the portfolio. We expect an inorganic decline of approximately 1%, which reflects the now completed portable medical exit slightly offset by contribution from acquisitions and foreign exchange. We now expect C&V sales to be flat to down low single digits compared to the prior year. This compares to the prior outlook of flat to up low single digit growth and is due to the recent customer forecast updates that primarily affect our second half outlook for electrophysiology. Regarding our CRMN outlook, we continue to expect sales to be flat to up low single digits. This growth rate includes the previously communicated headwind from one new neuromodulation product, which is unchanged. In other markets, we now expect a decline of approximately $34 to $36 million versus our prior range of $30 to $35 million. The year-over-year decline is primarily due to the portable medical exit. As a reminder, other markets' sales are primarily related to a manufacturing service agreement with the purchaser of our former advanced surgical and orthopedic business and are outside our targeted markets. In the second quarter, we expect sales to increase sequentially versus the first quarter, resulting in a first half reported sales decline of approximately two to 3%, which is in line with our prior outlook. The first half decline in reported sales primarily reflects the significant reduction in sales related to the three new products, as well as the exit of the portable medical business. We continue to expect nominal sales to ramp sequentially throughout 2026. We expect organic sales to return to market growth in the fourth quarter, normalized for fiscal calendar production days. As we have previously shared, we have fewer production days in our fourth quarter as compared to the prior year, which represents an approximately 5% headwind to our sales growth rate. We expect our second quarter adjusted operating income margin to improve 80 to 140 basis points sequentially versus the first quarter, and we expect operating income margins to improve sequentially throughout 2026. Turning to our cash flow and debt outlook, we now expect cash flow from operations to be between $185 million to $205 million, a $15 million decrease at the midpoint of the outlook, consistent with the change in our profitability outlook. We continue to expect capital expenditures of between $95 and $105 million for approximately 5% to 6% of sales. As a result, we expect to generate free cash flow between $85 and $105 million. We expect our 2026 year-end net total debt to be between $1,185,000,000 and $1,205,000,000. We expect our leverage ratio to be within the targeted range of 2.5 to 3.5 times trailing four-quarter adjusted EBITDA in 2026. I'll now turn it back to Payman for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Darren. In summary, we continue to view 2026 as a transition year. We expect the product headwinds we've discussed to be short-term in duration. The long-term fundamentals of our markets and our business remain strong. The medical device markets we serve continue to present an attractive opportunity, and we are focused on high-growth markets such as electrophysiology, structural heart, neurovascular, and neuromodulation. We are a trusted partner to the world's top medical device companies and emerging innovators. Our strategy includes engaging with our customers early in the design and development of new products, helping them to accelerate their timeline to market by solving complex engineering challenges and designing for scalable, high-quality manufacturing. We have significantly increased product development sales in recent years, and this has yielded a robust and diverse pipeline. This pipeline, when combined with our underlying business, supports our return to organic sales growth 200 basis points above the market in 2027. Before we transition to Q&A, I would like to address this morning's separate announcement that our board has initiated a strategic review. Our board is highly confident in our strategy and our long-term objectives to grow sales above market, expand margins, and remain disciplined within a targeted leverage range. At the same time, the board and the management team continuously evaluate the opportunities to enhance shareholder value. As a respected and well-positioned CDMO serving the medical device industry, Interest in Integer has historically been strong and has intensified in recent months. Given this recent heightened interest, the board and the management team believe now is the right time to consider all opportunities to maximize shareholder value, which may include continuing to execute our standalone strategy. As is typical with this type of process, there is no deadline or definitive timeline set for the completion of the strategic review, and there is no assurance that the review will result in any transaction or other outcome. I want to emphasize that this review does not change our overall focus, which is being a strategic partner of choice to our customers and advancing their goals through our industry-leading engineering and manufacturing, and with a relentless commitment to quality, service, and innovation, nor does this change our focus on delivering on our financial commitments. We will now turn the call over to our moderator for the Q&A portion of the call.

As a reminder, If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed with the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star one again. In order to take as many questions as possible, please limit yourself to one question and a related follow-up if necessary. Our first question comes from Matthew O'Brien with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks so much for taking the questions. I guess, Payman, for the first one, you know, this second cut on the EP side here announced this morning, can you just talk a little bit more about that? Is that more a function of a market slowdown or inventory workdown, or are there additional products that are not ramping as fast as expected now and the next new head that you're seeing with an EP?

Yeah, good morning, Matt. Thanks for the question. So let me expand on that a little bit. So let me clarify first that the adjustments that we're talking about are not related to the two products that we had talked about previously. The forecast, the purchase orders that we're tracking, and the outlook for those products has remained unchanged. We also do not believe that there is an impact of the market. The market is normalizing. It is slowing down. If you listen to the leaders in the industry and through our own research, we expect the EP market to be in the range of mid-teens to high-teens in 2026. This is slower than what it was last year, which was north of 20%. But it is still a very strong market, and we expect it to continue to be very strong in the future in the double digits in the coming years. The products that we're talking about are primarily used in electrophysiology procedures independent of the technology used, whether it's PFA, whether it's RF or other technologies. As we've mentioned before, we participate across the procedures in EPE. And these are some of the products that we believe that as the market is normalizing, as our customers, have a clear view of what their needs are, and they're adjusting their production plans. They have adjusted their forecast on us, and that's what this reflects. As I highlighted in the preferred remarks, this is not a loss of contract, insourcing, or any other change in the supply arrangement, and we believe the impact to be temporary.

TAB, Okay appreciate that and just to put a finer point on that you're saying, basically, this is not a new pfa capital that's that's being impacted it's it's maybe some of the. TAB, accessory products that cross or or mapping capital or something along those lines or that that are kind of normalizing that is that the right way to frame it.

Yeah, I mean, the way we had previously discussed it, we had not specified the two products, what they were. We had just talked about two PFA products. That outlook has not changed. These are products that are used, primarily products that are used in ablation procedures. As you pointed out, there are different types of products that are used in the procedure, and that's the primary source of the impact.

Our next question comes from Brad Fishman with KeyBank Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the questions. I was hoping you could expand a little bit more on the announcement of the strategic review. More specifically, just interested kind of what it was that led you to make this decision and then how you're thinking about the tangible next steps regarding some of the outcomes that you mentioned in the press releases.

Yes, of course. And good morning, Brad. So I would like to start with our board and management continue to believe and have confidence in our strategy. We've demonstrated that our strategy is delivering results. We have built a very strong pipeline, a very strong set of capabilities that our customers depend on for their success. And we believe that we have an excellent strategy. And as a result, look, over the years, there has always been interest in Integer. And our board believed that we can deliver the best shareholder value by continuing our standalone strategy. But in recent months, there has been a heightened level of interest in Integer. And our board, of course, wants to make sure that we explore all options to see what can deliver the most value for shareholders, which is the reason why we're announcing this process now. In terms of the next steps, obviously, we will go through a process and we will see what the outcome of that process is. As we mentioned, there is no guaranteed outcome with this and we don't necessarily have a specific timeline.

All right, great. Then just wanted to ask a little bit more about the long-term dynamic. You know, I note that you, you know, reiterated the expectation that you expect to return to above-market growth in 2027. Just to put a finer point on that, are you still defining your market as 4 to 6 percent, even though the 2026 guide assumes 3 to 4 percent, excluding the new headwind? And then, you know, kind of what gives you the confidence or visibility to reiterate that 2027 directional guidance, just given some of the changes in the last few quarters. Thank you so much.

Yeah, no problem. Yes, our markets continue to be 4% to 6%. And the reason that we are seeing 3 to 4% this year is because of some of the headwinds that we believe are temporary for the reasons that I mentioned that are primarily in the EP space. So in terms of our growth, our return to growth above market in 2027, as we mentioned, we expect to get back to market growth in the fourth quarter. of this year. That will be our exit year into 2027, which is what we expect. And our new product launch schedules, that continues to be very strong. We've talked about that. We expect to have new product launches in all of our growth markets in the second half of 2026, as well as 2027. So when you combine the underlying market growth, which we expect to continue to be at 46%, With the addition of NPI, we have confidence that we can get to 200 basis points over market. So I do want to highlight this. The EP market continues to be a very strong market for us. In fact, in the first quarter, our EP business, excluding the two new products, had very strong performance. We believe that our performance in EP and 1Q was above market. when you exclude the two new products, which of course have had an impact. And we have a strong pipeline in electrophysiology, and we believe that this portfolio will continue to give us tailwinds, and not only in 2027, but also beyond.

Our next question comes from Richard Newiter with Truist. Please go ahead.

Hi. I just, maybe the first one. I think you gave some explanation for the forecast reduction. It was clearly some discrete EP areas that were not linked to the prior ones that led to the original reduction. So that's one. And then you also mentioned that you took the opportunity to further risk adjust some other areas. It felt like as just in case, if you could elaborate on that, what is, a discrete forecast reduction in your updated guidance versus what is an adjusted risk adjustment factor and for what? And and and, you know, is it because you think there's something there for that placeholder, if you will, or is it just to be conservative in the follow up?

Yeah. Good morning, Rich. The let me confirm the first part of your question that, yes, as you as you pointed out, the EP the EP reduction, which was the primary source of the forecast adjustment, was not related to the two other products that we had discussed. The risk adjustment is because we are seeing, as we mentioned, some variability within the EP market. After a very dynamic period over the past couple of years and the normalization of the market, we are seeing some forecast adjustments. Our customers have a better handle of the market and their needs. We want it to be prudent. Our guidance philosophy is still to take a balanced view, but we have biased it more towards risk adjustment just to minimize the risk of further forecast adjustments as we navigate this period of variability.

Okay. Just to follow up on that, before I get to my second question, you're saying that the, quote, further risk adjustment above and beyond the forecast reduction you received was related to the EP areas that you're highlighting right now. Is that right?

It's across the portfolio, and I think Part of the question that you had asked, Rachel, was whether we have visibility to further potential reduction and erosion. The answer is no. We wanted to make sure that we further risk adjust as we see some variability. That is across the portfolio, not only in EP, just to minimize potential further reductions.

Our next question comes from Nathan Trebek with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Payman, can you share if your wallet share in EP is expanding? Is it stable? Is it declining? And then is your 2027 algorithm dependent on EP reaccelerating? And if so, what would drive that?

Yeah, good morning, Nathan. We have a very strong portfolio in electrophysiology In fact, that portfolio has expanded substantially in recent years. And that is because of the technologies that we've developed, the participation that we have in the EP portfolio with the major players in the industry. So that is a very strong portfolio for us. In terms of whether our share of wallet increasing or decreasing, we have a very strong portfolio. We believe that we are and expect to be a leader in the CDMO space in EP. As I mentioned earlier, we believe that these headwinds are short-term in nature. There are adjustments to a period of variability, and we expect a contribution of the EP market, our EP portfolio, to our above-market performance in 2027 and beyond. I do want to highlight that the two products that we had previously discussed, we are not counting on any contribution of those two products for our growth in 2027. But we believe that our EP portfolio in general as a whole will be a contributor to our growth above market in 2027 and beyond.

Great. Thanks for that. And to your response to Rich's question, it seems like you risk adjusted other parts of the CMV portfolio outside of EP. Can you just talk about the trends you're seeing in those markets? Is there anything specific you would call out?

Yeah, nothing that I would call out. Specifically, Nathan, this is a recognition that we've gone this period of somewhat volatility. Obviously, in the third quarter, we had an event with three products that had an adoption challenge. These products that we're talking about is more, we believe, an adjustment to the normalization of the market. We wanted to make sure that we were prudent, that we were more measured and further risk adjusted our portfolio still within a balanced view to minimize further risk of erosion in the event as a normalization continues, there could be some other adjustments. Now, I do want to continue to highlight that we believe that our markets continue to grow at 46%. We expect to get to 46% in the fourth quarter. And with the product launches that we have and the exit rate, we expect to get back to 200 basis points in 2027.

Our next question comes from Andrew Cooper with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Hey, everybody. Thanks for the questions. Maybe first, you talk about sort of a broader breadth of kind of challenged areas right now within EP. and yet you still talk about the end markets and the ep markets in particular you know still growing like you thought so what's driving this mismatch what gives you confidence that this is short term and not something that's a little bit more structural and and kind of how do you think about that at a higher level sure and good morning andrew the um maybe to uh to preface my answer i would just uh

highlight the fact that, you know, we are in the supply chain of our customers. So what that means is that what we sell to our customers are things that, you know, likely go into their production sometime one to three quarters ahead. So there's a little bit of a difference in terms of what our customers sell into market and how they forecast on us. And there's a little bit of a variability there. Our customers sell products on a regular basis and they adjust, if you will, their forecast on us based on what they see happening in their business, how much product they have on hand, what is their production plans, et cetera, et cetera. So if there is a little bit of a variability, that is normal in normal times, I would call it. This is the reason why we typically point to a rolling four-quarter look for our business because it takes away, it smooths out some of those potential lumpiness as customers adjust their production needs and then put it on us. This adjustment, we believe, is a little bit unprecedented because of the very rapid change in the EP market caused by the disruption of PFA, our customers have tried to make sure over the past couple of years, understandably, that they have all products on hand to make sure that they can maximize the opportunities depending on what their customers and physicians use. Well, now the market is normalizing. The growth rates have normalized a little bit. The market itself has stabilized. So the visibility has become clear. And we believe this to be an adjustment to the order patterns, which we believe is one time and short term. We don't expect it to be, you know, something that will continue in the long term.

Okay, so maybe just a, Really quick follow-up on that and then tag on a second question. Sounds like maybe you're pointing to some of this might be inventory management at the customer level as they do sort of mature into that more stable environment. Is that a fair takeaway from what you just said? And then secondly, maybe for you and Dyron as well, but last quarter you talked about continuing to spend, continuing your plans sort of regardless of some of these near-term headwinds. Has any of that changed at all? How do you think about, you know, the spend and the development work, et cetera, that you have in mind moving forward? And what would have to happen to change that if the view hasn't changed yet?

Yeah, sure. So let me, on your first part of the question, whether there's inventory, yeah, there's some of that. So I think that's likely some of that. I think maybe, let me start the answer to your second question, and then I'll ask Darren to to chime in a little bit. We have a strong pipeline. We continue to invest in our business. We continue to expect to get back to strong performance in 2027 and beyond. So we want to make sure that although we are in a very disciplined fashion managing our costs, that we're not making, you know, large, you know, changes, if you will, in that to protect our future growth. But I'm going to have Darren chime in and add some more to that.

Yeah. So, Andrew, thank you for the follow-up call, the follow-up question. Yeah. As Payman mentioned, you know, we're continuing to maintain our discipline cost management. We shared in previously that we were not going to make any structural changes to the business, given the lower sales volume and the return to market growth and the 200 basis points above growth in 2027. I would say philosophically that that is still a line, but we are looking to be more aggressive on the cost actions and the discipline cost management aspects. but still ensuring that we're not going to damage the ability to return to market growth and the above market. So we are looking to be more aggressive, and we have included that into our forecast and outlook that we have shared.

Our next question comes from Travis Teed with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks for the question. I wanted to go back on the EP market comments you were talking about. The market was north of 20. Now it's kind of mid to high teens. But I think a lot of the slowdown has been kind of revenue per procedure, at least that's what we thought at least, and we think you're more exposed to volume. And I don't know, like, are customers expecting volume in the EP market to slow more from here? And curious what kind of volume growth is your 2027 guide assume at this point?

Yeah, good morning, Travis. You are correct that in the past couple of years, a lot of the growth in the market has been because of the price as PFA products have kind of taken over a little bit at a higher price in the market at the OEM level. And it's a little bit less for us. You are correct there that that price has been a big factor in the market growth. And 15 to, I would say the mid to high teens that I talked about, that our customers talk about, but obviously that also takes into account their ASPs and their average sale prices. So there is an element of price there. Specific to your question about procedure volumes. Yeah, procedure volumes are a little less than that, but we still see them as being very strong. you know, somewhere in the, you know, close to the high single digits to low double digits in the 10 to 12% is kind of what we see procedure volume. So we consider that to be strong and that we expect it to continue to be strong.

Thank you. And kind of the follow-up question on inflation kind of coming back in to investors' minds again after 2022. I'm just curious if you could remind us how you guys have managed inflation, how you expect to manage inflation, expecting the impact from here, what kind of things you're exposed to that we could watch from a macro perspective?

Sure. Some of the things that I can point to, obviously, the conflict in the Middle East is causing some inflation across the board. I mean, I will start maybe with one of the obvious areas, which is which is fuel prices, it's relatively limited for us, Travis, in terms of impact. The majority of our customers, because they have strong logistics in place, they pick up products from our manufacturing facilities. So our exposure to fuel prices, if you will, is limited. We are very closely watching our supply chain for two things, obviously for inflation, as you pointed out, but also for any potential disruptions. We believe that the potential disruption is minimal and that we don't see a risk of disruption at this point. And the inflation that we see is not something that is material for our outlook and that we believe is manageable. So it is not a source of concern for us at this time.

Our next question comes from Joanne Winch with Citi. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you so much for taking the questions. looks like a lot of attention has been paid to EP for good reason. But I'm curious what you're seeing in the CRM and Neuromod side of the business and how you're seeing that progress. Thank you.

Yeah, no problem. Good morning, Joanne. Our CRM business is performing well. In fact, in the first quarter, our CRM came slightly ahead of expectations. So it continues to have to perform well. Our Neuromod business, as you know and as we've talked about, is affected in 2026 primarily by a reduction of the one product. So obviously that has given us some headwinds in 2026. So our Neuromod business is expected to be softer in 2026, but we continue to expect Neuromod to grow. For example, our emerging customers with PMA products, you know, those products are primarily in the neuromod space. And although we've had a few quarters of softening, we still expect, you know, that portfolio to contribute to grow at 15 to 20% in that horizon of three to five years that we had provided previously.

Our next question comes from Suraj Kalia with Open Armor. Please go ahead.

um payment diagram kristen good morning um so payment i just want to go back to the fundamental question at hand in your comments uh you talked about the attractiveness of medtech markets normalization and second half the board's confidence in the company's strategy so payment the timing of the strategic review seems a little bit hard to digest especially given where the stock is Can you help us thread the needle? Why now? What's driving this? Sure. I understand the outside interests, but just if you could just help us understand the different moving parts here.

Sure. Happy to do that, Suraj. So, yes, I would like to reiterate that both the board management and myself have strong confidence in our strategy, in our pipeline, and the future of the company. Our board has a fiduciary responsibility to always make sure that we are maximizing shareholder value. And although we believe that the strategy that we have can do that, given the heightened interest that we've had in recent months, we believe and our board believe that now is a good time to explore those strategic alternatives to see whether there is an opportunity to maximize value for shareholder value. the outcome of that exercise could be something, some sort of a transaction, or could be a determination that our standalone strategy is the best way to generate value for shareholders. This is the reason for doing this now is because of the heightened interest that we have received in recent months.

Got it. Darren, one question for you. I'll hop back in queue. Okay. What percent of your costs would you say are fixed versus variable? And I mean company-wide. Part of the reason I ask is that the Iran war is prolonged and the economic uncertainty lingers. What switches can you turn off temporarily? And then by the same token, how long does it take to turn them on again? Just trying to understand how to model it.

given the macro level dynamics that are going on gentlemen thank you for taking my questions yeah thank you siraj um yeah look when you look at our overall uh you know footprint as a manufacturer um certainly we have uh an amount of fixed cost in our opex level both in the you know the structural elements of supporting the organization um yeah there's there's a bit of discretionary cost in there but i would say the opex is a highly fixed portion of the business And then certainly in gross margins, you're going to have a mix of variable costs between your direct material, your direct labor, as well as in your fixed infrastructure for the manufacturing footprints. As an example, rent, repairs and maintenance, utilities, things of that sort. So I think you kind of have to look at the fixed versus variable structure when you kind of look at those splits to do the modeling aspects of it. Yeah, when it relates to, you know, dynamics such as, you know, conflicts in the Middle East or other areas, you know, we look to manage the variable costs very, very closely with our volumes, our sales volume. And that's, you know, how we've been managing through this dynamic as well. I think when you look at the sales profile, one of the key things is understanding whether you believe that to be a more longer term impact or call it one quarter. We've talked about some of the variability that we see as a CDMO on a quarter to quarter basis. Our products are not simple products, right? They're complex, which is why we bring great value to our customers. And so as a result, there's a training element for direct labor. So there's an element where that is not turned off and on on a dime, right? You got to make sure you spend the right time to get the labor trained. And so as you look at the individual quarter variability, that's where you're able to leverage that workforce and look at that. So I think hopefully that helps you understand a little bit of the nuances of, you know, as a complex manufacturer, some of the elements that we have.

Thank you again for joining us today. You can access the replay of this call as well as the presentation and Integer's investor website at Integer.net. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.