Stryker Corporation

Welcome to the second quarter 2020 Striker Earnings Call. My name is Michelle, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the conference, we will conduct a question and answer session. During that time, participants will have the opportunity to ask one question and one follow-up question. If you would like to ask a question, please press star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. This conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that the discussions during this conference call will include forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the company's most recent filings with the SEC. Also, the discussions will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in in today's press release that is an exhibit to Stryker's current report on Form 8-K, filled today with the SEC. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Alobo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. You may proceed, sir.

Welcome to Stryker's second quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Glenn Bainline, Stryker's CFO, and Preston Wells, Vice President of Investor Relations. For today's call, I'll provide opening comments followed by Preston with some perspectives on the recovery trends across our diverse businesses. Glenn will then provide additional details regarding our quarterly results before opening the call to Q&A. As we begin today's call, I would like to start by thanking all our employees for their continued commitment to ensuring the safety of their colleagues, their families, and our customers. I am very pleased with the resiliency of our organization, which has maintained high employee engagement and customer connections through the pandemic. From our sales forces who have remained present and essential to the doctors and caregivers they support, to our manufacturing teams that have worked around the clock to optimize supply with ever-changing demand, and across our workforce, most of whom continue to collaborate virtually, the striker spirit remains alive and well. Our second quarter sales declined organically by 24%, reflecting the impacts of COVID-19 across all geographies and the majority of our product lines. The results reflect progressive improvement in overall sales through the quarter, but do vary by region. The sequential improvement can be tied to the initial cancellation and subsequent gradual return of elective procedures during the quarter. As mentioned in our first quarter call, we took aggressive steps early on to ensure the safety of our employees and customers while managing discretionary spending across our P&L in response to the slowdown in sales. Our cost containment measures included significant reductions in travel and meetings, a slowdown in hiring, and salary reductions across senior leaders. In addition, we made other efforts to focus on cash conservation, including the idling of select product lines and facilities across our network starting in May. These actions, combined with our sales performance, resulted in adjusted earnings per share of 64 cents a decline of nearly 68% versus the prior year. As we look at the quarter, the low point in sales occurred in April and then improved sequentially through the end of June. As a reminder, implants and disposables represent about 75% of our sales, and small capital represents 16%. Small capital generally mirrors the performance and trends of implants and disposables. The largest improvements within the quarter were in hips, knees, spine trauma, sports medicine, and neurotechnology, reflecting the resumption of electric procedures and the gradual opening of previously locked down communities and geographies. With respect to our large capital businesses, Medical Capital and Mako were standouts, both posting strong growth to the quarter. Our Mako robotic technology remains in high demand with our customers, despite any financial constraints resulting from the pandemic. By geography, Japan and Canada performed well, while Europe, China and Australia showed progressive improvement through the quarter. In contrast, Latin America and India continue to be weaker as the impacts of COVID-19 remain more widespread in those regions. In Q3, we expect the recovery to continue, but do not expect it to be linear, while local governments deal with varying degrees of resurgences. Our R&D programs continue to proceed despite logistical challenges caused by the pandemic, and we spent at a healthy rate in the quarter. We are actively engaging with our customers while ensuring that our product supply is in a strong position to capitalize as procedures resume. However, given the fluid nature of the situation, we are not providing Q3 or full-year guidance. We are proceeding with the integration efforts regarding the right medical transaction. We are working cooperatively with the regulators to obtain the necessary approvals for the transaction, including, as previously announced, proposing to divest our star total ankle replacement product. This process is well underway, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority recently announced that it will consider our proposed undertakings in lieu of a Phase 2 investigation. We continue to expect to close the transaction around the end of Q3 or beginning of Q4. Please note, beyond this update, we will not be taking any questions regarding Right Medical or the pending transaction on today's call. This has been the most unique situation that most of us have ever experienced. While we have been impacted financially as a result of the government shutdowns and deferrals of elective procedures, this time has also allowed us opportunities to reevaluate and develop new ways to work and collaborate across our diverse group of businesses. We are prepared to emerge from the pandemic a stronger, more efficient company. I remain confident in our people, our culture, and our ability to partner with our customers to meet the needs of the many patients they serve. And now, over to Preston.

Thanks, Kevin. My comments today will focus on providing additional insights into the current environment and how certain countries and products perform during the quarter. We saw progressive improvement in sales throughout the quarter, with April being the low point. The improving trends were primarily driven by the resumption of elective procedures. That momentum is continuing into Q3 as July is trending better than June. We estimate that approximately 40% to 50% of our total global revenue includes procedures that are considered elective, or more accurately, can be in many cases deferred for a period of time. This primarily includes hips and knees, extremities, spine, sports medicine, and our ENT business. Geographically, elective procedure recovery varied depending on the government actions and severity of the pandemic. In addition to the U.S., countries like China, Australia, and Germany have also shown month-to-month improvements as elective procedures returned during the quarter. reaching approximately 85% to 90% of pre-COVID levels. The UK, India, and Latin America lagged during the quarter at less than 50% of pre-COVID levels as the pandemic continued to spread in these countries. During the quarter, we saw strong demand for our large capital products, specifically beds and stretchers within our medical division, and ongoing high demand for our make-over-buy technology. In the second quarter, we were very pleased with the MAKO installations in the U.S., including increased sales to ASDs and competitive accounts. We continue to see a growing percentage of both hip and knee replacement surgeries being performed with a MAKO robot. As it relates to knees, there's an ongoing shift towards the metals. We also launched a new software upgrade for the MAKO hip program that includes features which improve the overall ease of use. Our leadership and orthopedic robotics, a strong order book, and a solid innovation pipeline positions us well to see continued above-market growth in joint replacement. While we have made meaningful reductions in many discretionary spend items, our investment in R&D remains robust, as does our healthy cadence of new product introductions. During the first half of the year, we are pleased with the customer feedback and results from several new products, some of which include... Spine's Niagara Lateral System, MiniFrag Platinum and Trauma, and Neurovascular's VECTA71 and 74 intermediate catheters. These and other launches will contribute to our performance for the rest of the year and position us well for the future. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a slowdown in elective procedures, it has also placed increased emphasis on the safety of healthcare providers and their patients. Over the years, we have built an extensive portfolio within our med-surg businesses, addressing many of the challenges our customers face with a focus on accident and infection prevention and caregiver safety. This includes products like our patient hygiene and disinfecting products, personal protective equipment, waste management and smoke evacuation devices, along with a Lucas chest compression system, which delivers high-quality automated CPR while reducing the proximity of the caregiver to the patient. With the ongoing threat of COVID-19 infections, the Department of Defense identified automated compression devices, such as a Lucas device, as the best practice for delivery of CPR. Demand for these products grew during the quarter in response to these increased safety concerns. We will continue to leverage our diverse portfolio to address changing trends and meet the expectations of our customers, caregivers, and patients. With that, I will now turn the call over to Glenn.

Thanks, Preston. Today I will focus my comments on our second quarter financial results, related drivers, and liquidity matters. Our detailed financial results have been provided in today's press release. Our organic sales decline was 24% in the quarter. These results included a decline in the US of 27.4% and an international decline of 14.5%. As a reminder, this quarter included the same number of selling days as compared to Q2 2019. Pricing in the quarter was unfavorable 0.2% from the prior year quarter and foreign currency had an unfavorable 0.8% impact on sales. During the quarter, our growth was significantly negatively impacted by reductions in elective surgeries, the effects of shelter-in-place orders across many geographies, and the pause in hospital capital spending as the medical community navigates this pandemic. Throughout the quarter, we saw progressive improvement in the expansion of elective surgeries across many geographies, which resulted in significant variability in our sales. On an overall basis, our sales decline ranged from minus 36% in April to minus 10% in June. Our adjusted quarterly EPS of $0.64 represents a decline of 67.7% from Q2 2019. The foreign currency impact on second quarter EPS was minimal. Certain other factors resulted in disproportionately negative impacts on EPS, including the loss of higher margin sales and a loss of leverage related to manufacturing and operational fixed costs. These were partially offset by our strong focus on discipline to cost control within the quarter. I will now provide some brief comments on segment sales. Orthopedics had constant currency and organic sales decline of 29.3%. This included a U.S. decline of 28.8%. We saw declines across our hip, knee, and trauma businesses. We also saw very strong growth in our Mako business, somewhat offset by declines in bone cement. Internationally, orthopedics had an organic decline of 30.4%, which reflects the downturn in elective procedures across most geographies. MedSurg had constant currency decline of 16.4% and an organic sales decline of 17%, which included a 22.2% decline in the U.S., Instruments had U.S. organic sales decline of 38%, driven by power tools, waste management, and surge account. This was partially offset by increases in Instruments' PPE products, namely our flight helmet and other protective products. As a reminder, Instruments also had a very high comparable in Q2 2019, with 19% growth. Endoscopy had U.S. organic sales decline of 34.1%. This reflects a slowdown in its video, general surgery, communications, and sports medicine businesses. The medical division had U.S. organic growth of 5.4%, reflecting strong demand across its bed and emergency care businesses, resulting from demand tied to COVID-19, which was offset by declines in SAGE related to less patient flow. Internationally, MedSurg had organic sales growth of 4.6%, reflecting strong demand for medical products in Australia, Canada, Europe, and emerging markets. Neurotechnology and spine had a constant currency decline of 28.9% and an organic decline of 29.9%. Our U.S. neurotech business posted a constant currency decline of 36.4% and a 37.5% organic decline for the quarter. This reflects a slowdown in procedures in the quarter related to all our neurotech businesses. the decline was most pronounced in our EMT, neurosurgical, and CMF businesses. Internationally, neurotechnology and spine had an organic decline of 13%, reflecting slowdowns in Europe, Canada, and emerging markets, which was offset by a solid performance in our neurovascular business. Now I will discuss operating metrics in the quarter. Our adjusted gross margin of 57.3% was unfavorable 850 basis points from the prior year quarter. Compared to the prior year, gross margin was unfavorably impacted by fixed cost absorption and business mix. The fixed cost absorption was significant and related to certain costs associated with idle manufacturing that normally would be capitalized into inventory. During Q2, we operated at 60% of normal capacity, and the related unabsorbed costs diluted our margin by approximately 400 basis points. We anticipate Q3 will be at an average capacity of approximately 85%. Unabsorbed costs will continue to impact our margin until our manufacturing is operating at normal levels. Adjusted R&D spending was 7.6% of sales. our adjusted SG&A was 37.1% of sales, which was 360 basis points unfavorable to the prior year quarter. Compared to the prior year, SG&A was unfavorably impacted by business mix and deleveraging of selling and marketing costs, partially offset by operating expense savings actions taken during the quarter. In summary for the quarter, our adjusted operating margin was 12.5% of sales, The measures we enacted in March covering most of our discretionary spending, including curtailments in hiring, travel, meetings, and consulting, as well as the idling of certain manufacturing lines and facilities, including furloughing the related workers, continued throughout the second quarter. Related to other income and expenses compared to prior year quarter, we saw a decline in investment income earned on deposits. and interest expense increases related to increases in our debt outstanding. Our second quarter had an adjusted effective tax rate of 14.4%. Turning to cash flow and liquidity, we ended the second quarter with cash and marketable securities of 6.6 billion, including 4.6 billion related to right medical funding, and generated approximately 620 million of cash from operations in the quarter, which was ahead of our internal targets. This reflects earnings and a reduction in working capital, primarily driven by accounts receivable during the quarter. As I noted in January, we did not repurchase any shares in Q1, nor do we plan to do so the remainder of the year. The actions that we implemented in the first quarter to conserve cash continued in Q2 and included discretionary spending controls, reduction in planned capital expenditures and project spending, focusing on opportunity opportunities in accounts payable, and slowing M&A activities. Concerning our cash holdings and available credit lines, our liquidity, from a liquidity standpoint, we continue to be well positioned. We currently have available credit lines, none of which are drawn on at this time, of approximately $3 billion. In addition, our investment-grade credit rating supports good access to the capital markets. And we have taken advantage of historically low rates to execute additional funding in the quarter of approximately $2.3 billion for the right medical transaction. As it relates to this transaction, we estimate completing the required funding in the third quarter with the execution of up to an additional $1 billion. In terms of other future capital requirements, our quarterly dividend is approximately $215 million, and we have one $300 million bond maturity due in Q4. As it relates to guidance for Q3 and the full year, we reaffirm our previously announced decision to withdraw guidance given the continued significance of uncertainties at this time. We will continue to evaluate operating circumstances and the market environment for stability prior to reinstitution of guidance. And now I will open it up for Q&A.

Oh, hold on. Oh, fucking hell.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press the pound key. As a reminder, callers will be limited to one question and one follow-up question. Your first call comes from the line of Matt Mixick from Credit Suisse. I'm sorry. Your first question comes from the line of Bob Hopkins from Bank of America.

Thanks. Can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can, Bob.

Yeah. Great. Hey, Kevin Preston. Thanks for taking the question. Um, first question is, um, if I heard you correctly, that June revenues were down 10% for the whole company. Um, can you give me a sense as to how variable the growth was within divisions for June? I'm sure folks would love to hear kind of how hips and knees did in June relative to that 10%.

Yeah, sure. Bob, this is, uh, this is Glenn. Um, I think in general, you know, we're, we're not giving specific guidance, but, um, that minus 10% is directionally correct across most of our businesses. And then we fully expect to see continued momentum moving into July.

Okay. So that was the right number. Okay. And then one other thing I'd rather just in terms of thinking about the rest of the year, and I appreciate you don't have guidance here, but most medtech companies have offered up some comments on Q4 that suggest they think a reasonable amount first cut at Q4 is that they might be up a little bit or down a little bit on the year. You know, plus or minus zero is kind of what we're hearing from a lot of your peers. You know, I know you're not giving, you know, full guidance, but is there any reason to think that Striker might be way outside of that band, either to the positive or the negative, given what you're seeing in your business?

You know, Bob, there's a reason we're not giving guidance, right? Because we just don't know what's going to happen in the future. But there isn't any reason to think that there's something wildly different about our business. You know, we perform slightly better than the market, 100 to 200 basis points on top line. We've done it for eight years in a row. You should expect us to continue to have the same type of performance. And it really does depend on what the market does. And once we have a better visibility, we'll give guidance. But there's nothing unique about our business that would cause us to be wildly out of line.

Okay. Thanks for that. I appreciate it.

And pardon the interruptions as we work through a few logistics. And your next question comes from the line of David Lewis from Morgan Stanley.

And thanks for taking the question. Just a couple for me here. It would be one on capital, one strategic for Kevin. So, Kevin, just on the broader capital environment, I'm just curious, you did this distinction this afternoon of small capital versus large capital. I want you to just give us a sense of how you see the capital environment today. how hospitals are reacting to the CARES Act. I think a lot of investors are concerned about significant volatility or lack of demand for certain types of products. Maybe you could help us with small capital, large capital, with maybe some emphasis on the bed business is very strong, specifically strong internationally, and how durable you see that business, and a quick follow-up.

Okay, great. Well, so first of all, starting off with the CARES Act, so $175 billion has been authorized to go to hospitals. Only $115 billion has actually been dispersed, so there's still another $60 billion to be dispersed, and that's prior to the next round of legislation, right? So the next stimulation package will add to that. And so money is flowing to the hospitals. We were really pleased with the performance of medical, obviously. Small capital tends not to be as much of a worry. They need it to do the procedures. So that's why it tends to trend very, very closely with elective procedures. They need power tools to do the knee replacement. They need the cameras to do the general surgery products. So that tends never to be really hit too much. It's more of the large capital that tends to be the constraint. But because of the coronavirus, a lot of our large capital in terms of beds and stretchers were actually necessary, and we saw those being purchased. MAKO was really a pleasant surprise in the quarter to see the amount of robots we were able to install. There was more financing than normal. I would say, in the second quarter as hospitals tried to conserve as much short-term cash as they could. But it's hard to predict how this is going to play out over the course of the year. I would say for now we're feeling very good about the state of our businesses. Internationally, we had a terrific performance out of medical, and a lot of that is governments around the world really saying this is really important to have Lucas chest compression devices, very important to have ICU beds, et cetera. And so we had just a terrific performance there. We also don't have – Sage is a much smaller business for medical outside the United States, so that weighed heavily on our U.S. performance. We actually had strong medical capital in the United States as well. But we're feeling very good about the state of the capital business. It's not like the last time where you didn't have this kind of stimulation from the government to going directly into hospitals, and hospitals are very motivated to increase their procedures.

Okay, very helpful. And then, Kevin, as we head into next year, you seem very committed to the right medical transaction. So as we head into 21, your striker's balance sheet will be the most levered it's been in most recent memories, certainly. So one of the hallmarks of the business has been the ability to be flexible and go after growth-oriented M&A, and you've been one of the two top strikers. most active acquirers in large cap medtech. So how should investors think about your ability to do deals in 21 and beyond for 21 and 22? And should they all be concerned about the inability to do deals having an impact on the growth rate over the next couple of years? Thanks so much.

Yeah, thank you. So clearly, we'll be at a high leverage point. And we do have intentions to start paying down that debt. But we haven't stopped our business development teams. They're still out looking at targets. I would expect that they won't be necessarily as large as some of the targets we've done more recently. But you should expect us to continue to be busy with bolt-on type of acquisitions. And as you saw, we had a really strong performance in cash flow in the second quarter. As we generate cash, we'll be able to both pay down debt and stay busy in the M&A market.

And your next question comes from the line of Joanne Wunsch from Citibank.

Good evening, everybody. Two questions. The first one is, is there a particular segment that you see recovering faster than others? And the second question really is, as you look into next year, help me understand how to think about the financial model and some sense of normalcy. Thanks.

Well, I think we were pretty clear in the opening comments that our businesses really recover with the recovery of surgery. And so as the surgeries come back, all of our businesses are sort of resuming at a very similar pace. We don't have huge variability. I would say early on in the pandemic, ENT, because it was aerosolizing procedures, were clearly the hardest hit. And then the hips and knees were sort of next hardest hit. But I would say now, as the economy is reopening, we're really getting a nice uptake across a full portfolio. There really isn't that much variability as it relates to the elective procedures. Capital is a little bit different. So in the large capital area, the booms and lights and that type of capital wasn't as robust as beds and stretchers and Mako. So there is some variability, but again, not too dramatic. And so I think you're going to see our business grow. kind of come back as the economy comes back in a fairly synchronous manner. And then I wasn't quite sure I got your question about next year's financial model, Joanne. Do you mind repeating that?

Sure. I'm just trying to look past this year in some ways because, you know, investors are valuing stocks on 2021 and in some cases, 2022. And so I'm just trying to think of how do you think about next year? And it could be qualitatively or quantitatively.

Glenn, I think you're muted. Hey, sorry, Joanne, I was muted. I gave you a great answer, though.

I wrote it all down. You're good.

Yeah. Hey, so, Joanne, I'll speak qualitative to 2021. You know, we're not really looking to guide just yet and expect that that will happen after we have our Q4 earnings call. But as we think about next year, you know, we do think that there will be a progressive recovery and we're optimistic based on what we see right now. And so that will obviously play forward into 2021. From a cost structure standpoint, you know, we are sort of experiencing a sort of new ways of working and being more virtual and obviously saving on travel and other things. I think there'll be lots of examples of how that might play into our operating structure in the future. You know, we currently have a whole task force made up of our senior leadership team that's really looking at those ways of working and how we might come back. So I fully expect that, you know, as we look at our financial model and our operating structure for next year, we'll expect to see sort of the impact of some of that.

Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Matt Mixick from Credit Suisse.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I had one follow-up on MAKO and robotic surgery. Kevin, you'd mentioned a couple times the strengths in the quarter, and we rewind back to the beginning of Q2. I think there were questions as to how active hospitals would be in bringing in these new systems, and it sounds like it's kind of much stronger. Can you talk a little bit about maybe the mix or the regional aspects of the strengths and how your push into ASCs, the sort of ASC offering strategy is playing into that. And I have one follow-up on Spine.

Yeah, sure, Matt. We're not going to get into specific numbers as we stopped providing that, as you know, a couple of quarters ago. But I would tell you that we had slightly higher competitive placements than we had typically before and a bit more activity in the ASCs. And we've been selling to the ASCs before, so that's not new. But clearly, there is an accelerating trend towards the ASCs. It was already starting to ramp, and I think the pandemic is causing that to increase further. Keep in mind, there's still only about 5% to 10% of joint replacement procedures done in ASCs. So even though the ramp is picking up, it's going to take time before it becomes a very meaningful portion of procedures. But I would say those are the two areas that were higher than normal was ASCs and competitive accounts. And then what I tell you is overall, I was pleasantly surprised, not knowing how hospitals were going to react. Our team did an awesome job in the quarter of being able to place a lot of robots. And even though some more of them were financing than normal, we're totally fine with that. That's been part of our offense for a long time. And hospitals, understandably, are trying to preserve their options. But the demand and the pull from ACO is very strong. The order book is also very healthy. So This isn't just a one-quarter issue, and that augers very well for us. Every time we place a Mako, the percent of procedures done on the robot is increasing, and it tends, especially for our knees, it tends to cause an increase in cement loss as well. So those trends are continuing to rise. So it's lifting all boats within joint replacement.

Thanks. That's great to hear. And then on the spine side, just curious if you have any color on sort of seasonality issues It's in the summertime, summertime months, particularly now with K2M under the hood at Stryker. You know, there is this kind of upswing in scoliosis surgery and wondering if you'd seen that or seen any trends, ASCs or stronger cervical, stronger lumbar, given just the challenges early in Q2 and how that's shaping up heading into Q3 here.

Yeah, you know, it's such a messy quarter, honestly, with all of the closings that are happening and shutdowns. Scoliosis obviously is seasonal every year, and that's one of the crown jewels of the K2M portfolio, is there are complex deformity systems. But there's nothing unusual that I'd want to call out. And because there's so much noise, it's really hard for us to parse it out. There's just a lot of noise. And as it relates to ASCs, obviously spinal procedures are done in ASCs. It's not giant ASCs. I think that will increase in the same way that it's increasing in large joint procedures.

Fair enough. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Vijay Kumar from Evercore ISI.

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my question, and congrats on a solid execution here. Glenn, maybe the first one for you. I think I heard some comments around capacity utilization on the manufacturing side being at 60% in 2Q, stepping up to 85% in 3Q. One, I want to make sure I heard those numbers correct in 2Q. The implication on the gross margin side, you know, is the implication that you step up by a couple of hundred basis points because now you're absorbing manufacturing variances better.

Yeah. Hi, Vijay. Yeah, you actually, you heard those numbers right. Capacity was around 65% on average for Q2, and we actually do see it stepping up on an average to about 85% in Q3. In Q2, it was about a 400 basis point impact in terms of sort of fixed period costs that we had to expense as a result of some of those idlings. You could probably do the math on that number relative to the 85% in Q3 and come pretty close to what we anticipate the amount will be. Keep in mind, though, that we're forecasting where we think the ramp might be. and where it actually could be somewhat different, and that certainly would impact how we ramp up manufacturing.

I was about to say the step up in that capacity is a proxy for revenues, but thanks for clarifying that. Kevin, one for you. You know, if I had to guess three months ago, I would have said that pricing is going to be quite bad. This is really quite remarkable, you know, how pricing is shaking out. How much of this is a function of perhaps better discipline on your part in the industry in general, or is there something else going on in the industry? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for the question. We've been focused on price for a long time, and as you've seen over the past couple of years, pricing overall has moderated within our overall portfolio. So part of it is certainly our efforts, and part of it is just a stable environment. The pricing environment has been fairly stable for some period of time, and Obviously, our portfolio also has evolved over time, and with our portfolio being a higher percentage of mid-surge relative to the total and really some great discipline showing in some of our divisions. If I look at our CMF business as an example, they've got terrific price discipline and a lot of great innovations that we've been launching that continue to command good prices. And so we're going to continue to focus on that, and we continue to expect a pretty stable pricing environment going forward.

Thanks, guys.

And your next question comes from the line of Robbie Marcus with JP Morgan.

Great. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to see if we could spend a minute on two areas that mistreat numbers by a good amount, neurotech and instruments. And I was wondering if you could add any extra commentary. I know I guess people weren't taking into account how much some of the ENT might have been down in the quarter, but any other color you could add on instruments and neurotech and the trends there, obviously related to COVID, but just any color you could add.

Okay, sure. I'll take the neurotech part, and then maybe I'll ask Glenn to comment on instruments. So within neurotech, we have four businesses. So we have our neurovascular business, our cranial maxillofacial business, our neurosurgery business, which is Think about the neural-powered instruments and a portfolio of neurosurgical products and ENT. So within those four businesses, neurovascular is the largest on a global basis, but it's more heavily weighted to outside the United States. So roughly 60% plus of their sales are OUS. So in the U.S., you have a much higher weighting on ENT, CMF, and neurosurgical, all three of which obviously were heavily impacted by the pandemic. Neurovascular was less impacted by the pandemic. Conversely, those three businesses don't have a very high percentage of their sales outside the United States. So when you look at the neurotech basket, you can see that impact in international being much better, having much better performance than in the United States, just given the mixes of those businesses. But that's, I think, perhaps why A lot of times when I'm speaking to investors, sometimes they sort of simplify that neurovascular is the neurotech business, but it's really just one of the four businesses. And ENT was the most heavily impacted business of all of the businesses of Stryker given the aerosolizing procedures. And then, Glenn, do you want to talk about instruments?

Sure, sure. On instruments, you know, they're primarily – have two very large segments, one of those being orthopedic solutions, which is powered instruments that are primarily used in orthopedic procedures. And then the other is surgical technologies, which has our safety products, our waste management products. You know, obviously the orthopedic solutions scaled downward with just the elective procedure drop-offs in orthopedics. On the surgical technology front, I would tell you that, yeah, while some of their equipment was significantly down, their personal protective equipment and products that relate to that did very well. I would also tell you that, and I subtly said this in my earnings script, that last year, instruments grew almost 19% in the quarter, and so it was a very, very high comparable and bar that they would have to overcome to to even come close to growth. And I think you see that impact in the decline they had for the quarter.

Appreciate that. And maybe just a quick follow-up. You guys spend a billion dollars in R&D and have a very active pipeline. You know, we've heard from some of the cardio names that have bigger trials with longer timelines that they're seeing about six-month delays The R&D is down modestly in second quarter. How should we think about any potential delays to the pipeline, if at all, at Stryker? Thanks.

Yeah, I wouldn't expect much in the way of delays. Some of the reason for the lower spending is just access to labs to do testing. And so the pandemic did crimp us a little bit, but very modestly. And keep in mind that you really only have two divisions that have PMA products, our neurovascular division and our physio control business. And PMA products are the ones that really do demand those clinical trials. And we just have launched a series of terrific products within Neurovascular. So we actually have an innovation pipeline that is very, very healthy and refreshed within Neurovascular. We weren't on the cusp of something brand new. In fact, we had some really great news in the last quarter on some new approvals. So our Surpass Evolve, which is our newer float-a-verting stent, was approved in the United States. Our original floater burning stent, the Streamline, was approved in China, and our Atlas stent was also approved in China. So that was all good news. But don't expect much in the way of delays. Our product pipelines continue to march ahead. And I think the makeup of our business being much more 510K gives us the ability to continue to launch products at a very healthy pace.

Great. Thanks a lot.

And your next question comes from the line of Kayla Crum from SunTrust.

Great. Hi, guys. Thanks so much for taking our questions tonight. So I know you're not going to talk about the star divestiture process, but, you know, I think you sit in a pretty interesting spot right now, just having the perspective of a company, you know, trying to divest a business, but also open to evaluating tokens at this time. Sure. I just would be curious if you could comment high level on the M&A market today, what you're seeing in terms of just deal volume, potential sellers, and buyer pool in this market, just as compared with perhaps what you had seen a year ago.

Well, I think the pandemic caused a slowdown, clearly. A lot of activity got slowed down. We slowed down our own activities to some degree, continued to evaluate targets, but put a pause because obviously we were in cash conservation mode not knowing how long is this going to go on for. But I would say our BD teams are just as busy as ever engaging with targets and I think this will come back just as it always has in the past. There are still a lot of companies within MedTech, a lot of smaller and innovative companies and we're going to continue to be busy. The divestiture process relates to the regulatory process for the deal. and we're going to continue to stay active on the BD front. Obviously, as I mentioned before, we're taking on a lot of debt with this right medical acquisition, and so part of our commitment with cash is going to be to pay down some of the debt, but it won't be exclusively, and we've told the rating agencies we'll continue to stay active on M&A, but it'll be obviously smaller tuck-in type of deals for the near term.

Great. Thanks, Kevin. And then I just would like to touch about on vendor consolidation. Obviously, vendor consolidation has been a trend over time, but I'd love to hear if you're seeing any uptick in that more recently. Is it coming up more often in conversations with your hospital customers, or is it just kind of more of the same at this point? Thank you.

Yeah, I'd say it's more of the same at this point. Hospitals have been looking to consolidate vendors by service lines. We actually embrace that approach because we're very, very deep in each of our service lines and category leaders in the segments that we play in. We are seeing with our ASC offense that having everything that ASC needs, whether it's booms and lights and operating tables, maker robots, as well as implants, really does give us a terrific position in ASCs. So that's an area of strength. But I would say overall, not much change.

Great. Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Larry Beagleson with Wells Fargo.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Kevin, you know, I appreciate the negative 10% growth in June and the improving commentary for July. I just want to give you a chance to comment on this. I assume people come off this call thinking that Q3 should be, you know, better than that negative 10%. in June, given the July trends. Are you guys comfortable with that without saying whether you'll grow or not, but Q3 should be better than down 10?

Well, certainly, if the current marketplace continues, it will be much better, obviously, because July is trending better than June, as we mentioned. As long as we don't have an outbreak or have to go back to shelter in place, as long as this trend line continues, we're feeling good about Q3.

That's helpful. And then does that improvement in July also apply to the U.S.? And if so, you know, qualitatively, how are hospitals in the U.S. dealing with the spikes that we're all obviously seeing here? Thanks for taking the questions.

Yes, it certainly includes the United States. And obviously, we are businesses more heavily weighted to the U.S. And so as that U.S. recovery improves, that certainly is terrific for Stryker. Even in Florida today, we're seeing hospitals continuing to do surgeries. And so it's not as if we're going through what we went through in April. Hospitals, for the most part, have been pretty well equipped. They're segregating their COVID patients from the areas where they can do surgery. I'm not saying that universally. Some hospitals in Arizona, they chose to close elective surgeries down for a week. We saw that. But then they resumed the week after. So I think this notion of complete shutdowns, I don't think we're going to see that unless we have some type of rampant change in the in the way the virus is mutating and spreading. So I don't expect that. I think we'll have flare-ups. And the reason we don't want to give guidance is it's hard to predict the nature of those flare-ups and how big those flare-ups will be. But even today in Texas and in Florida and Arizona, surgeries are going on. And that gives us cause for optimism, certainly for Q3 and beyond. Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Kristen Stewart with Barclays.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. I just have a question regarding some of the, I guess, charges that you took in the quarter for in-process asset impairment. It says that you guys were suspending some investments. I'm just wondering what exactly, I guess, are you suspending, if there are any sort of projects that, R&D projects or anything like that, that are noteworthy just to explain. And then I noticed that you guys were taking some additional charges related to, I'm not sure if they're just the European MDR or if they're related to any sort of quality system improvement. Is there anything there worth mentioning just from, you know, how long I guess you anticipate taking these charges and just any update on kind of cash flows for the rest of the year? Thanks.

Okay, Kristen, I will try to cover both of those in one fell swoop here. So you're right, in the non-GAAP table, you can see that we recorded charges of about $170 million, and they were related to in-process asset impairments, product lines, and just sort of some other exit costs that really resulted from our decision to suspend certain investments due to pandemic-related constraints. I would tell you that the lion's share of those costs and those in-process costs were related to our 2020 ERP implementation, which we paused as a result of the pandemic. And really, just in accordance with kind of the accounting rules and due to all the uncertainties of the situation, we were unsure of what the restart date would be of our ERP project at this time. And so thus, we impaired that. some of those related in-process costs that had been previously capitalized. And then on the other questions, yeah, we continue to have costs that are related to EUMDR, and we'll have those flowing into next year that are just like everyone else of our peers are recorded in our non-GAAP charges, and we expect that that program will likely continue for about three years. And then on the cash flow front, you know, we, I think if you look at our cash flow, we just, for the quarter, just really reflected good working capital performance. You know, you combine strong collections with relatively flat inventories. We continue to work with our vendors on payment terms. And then all of that was just complemented by just the discretionary spending controls, as well as measured CapEx spend. And I think all of that combined to produce a really positive cash flow result for the quarter.

Thanks very much.

And your next question comes from the line of Rick Wise with Stifel.

Good afternoon, Kevin. You said in your opening comments something like we're prepared to emerge from the pandemic a stronger, more efficient company. And I obviously see no reason to doubt that. And you're highlighting cutting discretionary spend, et cetera, focusing on the pipeline. But I'm just curious what that means in your mind and how we should hear you. Are you saying – uh rick as we get or to all of us are you as we get back to a more normal procedure environment we're going to grow as we did and our margins are going to be what they were or are you saying something more that you're trying to position the company to grow even faster with even better margins because you're taking special actions special initiatives to plan for that you see what i'm asking oh i know exactly what you're asking and my cfo on my zoom screen

is waving his head saying, please don't give guidance. So, Rick, what I would tell you, I'll give you some qualitative commentary. So the qualitative commentary is what the pandemic has provided us is really shown us how effective we can be without having to be the high cost, high travel company we've been historically. We're a very high touch culture. We're realizing that there's a lot that we can do virtually that will be permanent. There's a lot of education, med ed, some that you have to do in person, cadaver lab type, but there's others that you can do very, very effectively and efficiently virtually. The buildings and facilities that we have, we're going to embrace flexible work arrangements going forward, and we are not going to need the same real estate by any stretch that we have today. And a lot of our CapEx over the past few years has been on office buildings and because of our growth and all the headcount we've been adding and all the companies we've been acquiring. And frankly, we're seeing a big change in what's going to be required in the future. So those are all areas on the efficiency front. And what I would tell you is this pandemic has shrunk our company. Our divisions are collaborating more than ever. And I think the nature of the pandemic has caused our divisions to work more together. And that's sort of one of the untapped assets of Stryker is as we collaborate, we're seeing it with our ASC offense. We're seeing it with the 3D printing. We're seeing it with sort of technology areas where different divisions can tap into enabling technologies, as an example. And we're collaborating better than we ever have before. And I think that will continue once we go back to, let's say, a more normal environment. And it's really unleashing a different kind of potential. So I can't put a fine point on numbers related to this, Rick, but I am feeling... tremendous momentum in the company. And the culture is very strong. And these changes are going to make us better as an organization going forward. How we use those efficiencies that we generate, it certainly gives us new confidence. And we'll get back to the nice off-margin expansion you saw with the past couple of years. That gives us tremendous confidence we can continue that. But I think there's some untapped potential there. in our divisions and through collaboration that we're going to start to see manifest itself in our results.

Interesting. And Kevin, just the last one from me. We haven't maybe focused a ton on this call on international. You've spent tremendous amount of time rethinking Europe over the years. You highlighted that Latin America, India is still weak. We haven't touched much on China. Can you give us, you know, just a high level perspective what you're feeling good about, what you're feeling concerned about as we think about the recovery or what initiatives you have underway there. Just your high-level thoughts internationally right now. Thank you.

Yeah, sure. So first of all, I would start off with the developed countries internationally. I feel very strong about that, strong about Japan, Australia, Canada, Europe. I mean, we are really in great position in all the developed markets, even Korea. I feel very, very strong about our position in developed markets. Emerging markets is the big area of opportunity for Stryker over the next five, ten years. I feel very good about the leaders we put in place. We put in terrific leaders in our major priority countries, whether it's China, India, Turkey, Latin America for sure, just fantastic leaders. We had a terrific year in 2019. We grew roughly 20% in emerging markets. It was outstanding. And we were really heading into this year with the wind at our backs. Unfortunately, the pandemic has thrown a huge wrench into that. When we talked about the problems in India and the problems in Latin America, they're really not striker problems. They're pandemic-related challenges that we have. I am expecting us to get back into the winning spirit that we had towards the end of last year. And I feel that because we have the right leadership in place. We have the right kind of models that in place. We've gone a little bit more direct in some countries. Turkey is a good example. We bought our distributor. So I do think we have the right infrastructure. It took us time, right? You remember four or five years ago, we were struggling in many of those countries. But I do feel we're on a solid footing and we will recover as those markets recover related to this pandemic.

Thanks again.

And your next question comes from the line of Matthew O'Brien with Piper Sandler.

Good afternoon, guys. This is Patrick Ong for MAP. Thank you so much for taking the questions. Just one for us. I just would love to go back to the financing for MAKO specifically. I'm curious about the FLEX financial program. I know as more ASCs acquire MAKO systems, you know, you talked about this being an important element for those placements. You know, have larger hospitals been using the Flex financial program as well? Or are you actually finding that things are operating on a more ad hoc basis when it comes to some of these financing agreements you've been having with systems? Any color there would be really appreciated. Thank you.

Sure. Hi, Patrick. This is Glenn. I'll answer that. You know what? Our Flex business is as busy as it's ever been. And I would tell you that just given the current conditions and maybe some of the uncertainties hospitals may have about their liquidity, I think that the fact that we can use Flex Financial to sort of customize these financial options for our customers is certainly making a very big impact on those capital businesses today. I would tell you that during Q2, you know, NACO sales were quite robust, and we supported our customers through a variety of financing options. And then lastly, the last bit of color I'll say is that just, you know, given the circumstances, we definitely are seeing a shift to financing more deals than we have historically experienced. And I fully believe that that will continue throughout the rest of this year. Thanks, guys.

from the line of Matt Taylor with UBS.

Thanks. This is actually from Matt. I guess maybe a question on MAKO, just going back to the comments on the competitive account wins. Are you going up against the other robotic systems in the field more and more and winning directly, or are those competitive account wins in accounts that don't currently have robotics yet?

This is Preston. I'll take that one. Just as we think about where we're going and the expansion of MACO and the opportunity that still exists, given the penetration that's currently there today, I think we have opportunities all throughout. So whether they're competitive accounts that are in or out, we're really just going to all of those different accounts and trying to find areas to place MACO.

Okay, great. Very helpful. And I guess another question is on your visibility into surgical calendars and maybe the type of patients that's getting procedures. Just trying to understand how much of the surgeries are working through the backlog versus new patients and if you have visibility into that. Thanks.

Yeah, so what I would tell you as you think about the catch-up, there was clearly, as we came into the recovery, some level of patients that had previously deferred procedures that were catching up and having those procedures done. We also know that the backlog was big, and there still are some patients that are out there that have some level of anxiety, and maybe they continue to defer some of those procedures for some bit of time. I think it's important, though, if you think about the products that we have and the disease states that we serve, Those disease states don't really improve over time, and so we believe that many of those patients will return to have those procedures done at some point in time. The other thing I would say is as this pandemic was happening, we do know that surgeons were not only cleaning and clearing through the backlog, but they were also seeing new patients, whether that was in office sometimes or through telemedicine. So because of those things, we believe that the backlog remains strong into Q3. Okay.

And your next question is from the line of Richard Newitter from Silicon Valley Bank.

Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. So I just wanted to follow up on the trend to the ASB, specifically as it relates to robotics. Very encouraged to hear that you're seeing increased demand for Mako there, and that goes to some of the placements. I'm just curious, we've heard in the past that robotics in the ASC setting might be a harder sell. So I looked at this year, where the value proposition is resonating the strongest. And in particular, one of the things that we've heard from our competitors who are offering robotic systems and specifically saying that they're better positioned to potentially sell to the ASC relates to the CT scan and the lack of a need for a CT scan. So you can just comment there the extent to which that has been a barrier at all in the past and any comments that you can offer further on the receptivity in this care setting for robotics. Thanks.

Yeah, thanks. You know, the surgeons that are operating the ASCs want to have the best technology. They want to be able to do the same kind of procedures they used to do in the hospital. And I would say the CT scanner, it's not been a barrier whatsoever whatsoever. At least not recently. I would say when Mako was earlier on, when we were initially launching our Total Needs, we had little flare-ups here and there across the country about getting the CT scan done. But if you want to do this the most accurately, you need a very, very accurate scan to be able to do the procedure the best way possible. And right now, I would say it's just a whimper of a sound. We really don't hear much of anything. And frankly, there's a huge degree of interest for Mako in the ASC. And we saw that in the actual numbers in this quarter.

That's helpful. And just on the topic of ASDs, Kevin, I appreciate the insights as to how Striker might be uniquely positioned to serve that care setting with your diverse platform and, you know, the fact that you're effectively deep across a variety of service lines and the one-stop shop for the needs of the surgeons. On the pricing side, particularly on implant pricing, Do you see the trend towards ASCs eventually having an impact on pricing? Is it going to get worse?

And is implant pricing kind of set to go downwards as an increased number of procedures get performed there?

Well, I can tell you right now we're not seeing – you saw the price numbers that we posted. And I would tell you we're not seeing much of a difference in pricing in the ASC versus the hospital today. I think it's going to depend on the ownership structure of the ASC. Is it affiliated with the hospital? I can't predict what's going to happen five years from now. ASCs run very, very profitably today. Their EBITDAs are very healthy. They are financially minded and they're good business people, but so are hospitals have been pushing us on price for years. Will there be pressure from the ASC? Sure. Is it going to be unique and different? I don't really see that. At least we're not seeing any signs of that right now. But, you know, we'll see how that evolves over time.

And your next question comes from the line of Josh Jennings from Cohen.

Good afternoon. Thanks, Kevin and Glenn. Just one question for me. I appreciate all the detail you provide in terms of the improvement, sequential improvement in procedures. I was hoping you could maybe lay out some trends inter-quarter and maybe even into July on what you're seeing in terms of the demand for your capital that's considered COVID essential within hospitals. It's done very well. In Q2, are you still seeing elevated demand, or should we be thinking about that tapering off as COVID is getting more under control? Thanks for taking the question.

Absolutely. Josh and Preston, just to think about that, you're right. I think with the COVID response for some of that larger capital, I certainly saw the big uptick early in the quarter. It's hard to say, given where we are and some of the continuations of flare-ups and shifts around of demand, what's really pulled forward versus what's going to be the normal response. So I would say as we think about that, we will still see a strong order book as we exited in our capital businesses. And at this point in time, we've not seen any significant stock piling of our capital equipment either. So I would say it's hard to tell, you know, where that's going to be as we look forward, but certainly strong throughout the quarter, second quarter.

Appreciate it. Thanks.

And your next question comes from a line of Kyle Rose with Canaccord.

Great, thank you for taking the question. Just one for me, very encouraged to see the strength in Mako in the quarter. And I know a lot's been asked here, but I wondered, Kevin, if you could just give us more of a higher level perspective of the orthopedic robotics market at this point. I mean, are the customers you're seeing, are they still, you know, the early adopters looking to differentiate themselves in the market? Are these purchases more defensive because the hospital on the other side of town acquired one? And then how do you view the size of the market just from a peer unit that can be placed in the field, particularly given the accelerated interest from not just the hospital side, but also the ASC side?

Yeah, so it's a great question. Predicting S-curve adoption rates or new technology, it's always a challenge, right? Because it's not something we do every day. It's not like launching a new power tool or launching a new camera. We can predict those curves pretty effectively. I would tell you that there's critical mass is really starting to happen. There's a momentum. There's a belief that this is the future. And so we're past the early adopter phase now. We have hospitals buying their second, third, fourth, fifth MAKO large systems. And we have competitive pressures, of course, that occur related to that. But the evidence and the happy patients that are telling their stories are and surgeons seeing great results. I think we still have a long way to go. It's still very early in the cycle. And we're pretty excited about the degree of interest, even through a pandemic, to be able to have that type of interest means, you know, we really are getting to the point where it's starting to become accepted. It's starting to, people are seeing the benefits. They wouldn't be buying the second or third or fourth if they really didn't see clear benefits to these procedures. So that gives us a lot of excitement about the future. But I would say we're still in the early innings. Given that there's 5,000 hospitals out there and a large number of them do orthopedic procedures, we're still at a very early phase.

And your last question comes from Ryan Zimmerman with BTIG.

Thank you for squeezing in. Kevin, I think if I recall, the neurovascular market saw a slowdown last quarter, which is certainly a bit concerning clinically. But, you know, taking your commentary today about neurovascular at more normalized levels, I wonder if you could just elaborate on that dynamic, you know, relative to your expectations and kind of, you know, is the market back to the level you expect? Is there room for that to come back further? And anything competitively that may have impacted you in the quarter, just given the performance? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks. No, it's not all the way back yet to the sort of the robust growth that it had before, but it made a big step forward as the quarter, as we sort of moved towards the end of the quarter. And we were surprised that we really thought neurovascular was more like trauma, core trauma, that patients get a stroke or going to rush in, and they stayed away from hospitals. It was a bit of a surprise that it went down, and I don't think that was unique to us. We didn't see anything materially different from a competitive landscape. The impacts of the business were really market related. And as the market improves, we feel we're going to be in very good position, especially with the new products. So the new large bore catheters that we launched, they were just a limited launch. And even the surpass of all photoverting stents, we weren't able to get to all the proctoring and training that you have to do. So that's been sort of a limited launch. So if anything, we have a bit of a new product tailwind. as we get out into the, let's say, the latter parts of Q3 and into Q4. But not much on the competitive front. It really has been a market dynamic issue, where I guess hemorrhagic stroke, some of it is quasi, or let's call it semi-elective, which I would have never thought. But those are coming back, and I expect that the market of neurovascular will really improve going forward.

Okay, thank you. And then just really briefly for me, How much within MAKO, the order book in terms of existing orders that are in process versus maybe the other side of the funnel, I think investors have had somewhat of a concern that while capital cycles are still robust, they may not reflect necessarily weakness. They don't reflect weakness today, but six months from now, they could be weak as there starts to be a gap in capital. I'm just wondering if you could elaborate just on that strong order book that you did call out today. Thank you.

I think even in capital-constrained times, there's certain capital people really want, and they will find the money. If it means they're going to not spend money in other areas to be able to buy the technology they want, what we're seeing with Mako is this is technology they want, and they're going to find a way to get it. And if that means using Flex Financial, great, they'll use Flex Financial. If that means curbing certain capital expenditure to funnel it into our business, that's what's going to happen. When surgeons are demanding it, and there are surgeons that make a lot of money, one of the silver linings of this whole pandemic, and of course there aren't many, but there are some, one of the silver linings is understanding just how profitable our procedures are to hospitals. Most hospitals know it, but when you watch your bottom line sort of evaporate because you're not doing these high-value procedures, And we play in a lot of spaces with high-value procedures, neurosurgery, spine, or joint replacement. They really want to be able to get that going again. And doing that with great technology is very profitable for the hospital. And so I think there's been some recognition. I've certainly heard that from certain hospitals about how important these procedures are. So our belief is we have just outstanding technology. that improves outcomes and that the surgeons want. And if the surgeons really want it, they're going to find a way to purchase it. And so that may not apply to all of our capital, but it certainly applies to MAKO.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Kevin Lobo for any closing remarks.

So thank you all for joining our call. We look forward to sharing our Q3 results with you in October.

Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.