Bioventus Inc. Class A Common Stock 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Bioventus 2026 second quarter earnings conference call. With me this morning are Rob Claypoole, President and CEO, and Mark Singleton, Senior Vice President and CFO. Rob will provide an update on our 2026 priorities and the second quarter highlights. Mark will review second quarter results and discuss our 2026 financial guidance. We will finish the call with Q&A. A presentation for today's call is available on the investors section of our website, bioventus.com.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our remarks today contain forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations of management and involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated, including the risks and uncertainties described in the company's filings with the SEC, including Item 1A Risk Factors and the company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2025. As such factors may be updated from time to time in the company's filings made with the SEC, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which may speak only as of the date made.

Although the company may voluntarily do so from time to time, it undertakes no commitment to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. This call will also include references to certain financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. We generally refer to these as non-GAAP or adjusted financial measures. Important disclosures about the definitions and reconciliations of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP are available in the earnings press release on the investors section of our website at bioventus.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Rob.

Thank you, Dave. Good morning, everyone, thanks for joining our call today. Bioventus continued its positive momentum in the second quarter, delivering solid financial results across our business. As we continue to strengthen our commercial, operational, and financial fundamentals, we are seeing encouraging leading indicators that reinforce our confidence in our future growth drivers. As such, we are reiterating our full-year guidance on all metrics and are confident that our long-range growth prospects will drive enhanced value for our shareholders. Before going through the details on the second quarter, I'd like to take a moment to address the strategic review we disclosed this morning. As you saw in our press release, following receipt of multiple expressions of interest and an unsolicited acquisition proposal, our board has formed a committee of independent directors that will evaluate a range of strategic options.

Importantly, these options include, but are not limited to, a sale of the company or the continued execution of our standalone plan. We have built a strong foundation for growth and success at Bioventus, I'm confident that the committee, with the assistance of Evercore as financial advisor, will take the time it needs to carefully evaluate all options to maximize value for our shareholders. Turning to the quarter, I'll update you on the three priorities we outlined at the start of the year. One, accelerating long-term revenue growth with increased investment in our business. Two, increasing earnings even with the higher level of investment. Three, continuing to strengthen our robust cash flow and enhance capital allocation optionality. Let me expand on each priority, starting with accelerating revenue growth and increasing investments into our business.

Second quarter revenue grew 4% as we continue to capitalize on the opportunities to grow our core business, led by strong double-digit growth in our Pain Treatments business. Within Pain Treatments, our HA franchise, led by DUROLANE, our market-leading single injection therapy, continues to be a durable strength for Bioventus, consistently growing well above the market. Our performance is driven by strong commercial focus, the experience of our dedicated sales force, DUROLANE's clinical differentiation, and broad private payer coverage. In the second quarter, this compelling combination helped us expand volume in existing accounts and win new ones. We believe our go-to-market approach and disciplined pricing strategy positions us for sustainable above-market revenue growth in HA. Year to date, the HA business has outperformed our expectations, allowing us to deploy the significant operating profit generated by this franchise to invest in our key growth drivers, including PRP, PNS, Ultrasonics, and International.

During the second quarter, we continued to increase investments in these businesses by expanding our commercial team, raising awareness of our differentiated solutions, and enhancing physician training programs. I'm pleased to report that these initiatives are generating valuable data-driven insights while producing positive traction across several leading performance indicators. These insights help us determine the optimal mix of future investment and commercial actions to maximize growth and returns. Let me highlight a few examples, starting with platelet-rich plasma. Our momentum is building in PRP, as capital placements continue to accelerate, we are seeing both larger and more frequent disposable reorders. These leading indicators demonstrate that our PRP system's efficient, customizable solution is gaining traction and beginning to displace competitive offerings.

We are also beginning to realize the benefits of leveraging our HA sales force to drive PRP adoption, which helps us win new PRP accounts and creates additional opportunities to expand our HA customer base. With respect to PNS, our world-class differentiated technology, combined with strong commercial execution, has created excellent momentum, including increased velocity in surgeon adoption and StimTrial placements with high conversion rates to permanent TalisMann implants, resulting in a growing base of new business. In addition, surgeons consistently express strong appreciation and clear recognition of our differentiation, which is translating into competitive conversions and meaningful inroads with larger institutions. The strength of these leading indicators confirms our continued focus on expanding sales force coverage, enhancing clinical support, and investing in clinical evidence generation to further augment our differentiation.

In Ultrasonics, our technology, combined with our investments in marketing and surgeon training, is driving encouraging traction with key leading indicators, particularly increased surgeon adoption, accelerating disposables growth, and new wins with larger accounts and market-leading IDNs. We expect these early indicators to translate into revenue acceleration in the second half of this year and beyond. Finally, in our international business, momentum continues to build following the addition of new talent and the team's greater focus on select markets with the best growth opportunities. We are encouraged by the speed of execution, the depth of our opportunity pipeline, and our customer win rates. Together, these indicators give us confidence in delivering strong double-digit growth in the second half and for the full year. Turning to our second priority, increasing earnings, even as we invest in our future growth drivers.

The second quarter was a powerful demonstration of how we have enhanced the earnings power of the business. Despite accelerating investments, we delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23%. For the full year, we expect to maintain a margin of at least 20%. Our operating profitability, combined with significant interest expense savings, generated adjusted EPS of $0.22 in the quarter. Year to date, we have increased our adjusted EPS by 24% compared to the prior year. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we expect to further accelerate our investments while continuing to grow earnings and deliver on our full-year financial guidance. We are able to achieve this by leveraging the earnings power generated from our durable above-market revenue growth and stable peer-leading gross margin. Turning to our third priority, accelerating cash flow. We delivered another strong quarter with cash from operations of $20 million.

We used our strong cash generation to repay an additional $24 million of our term loan. We also achieved an important financial milestone, reducing our net leverage to below two times. We expect our net leverage to be below 1.5 times by the end of the year, reflecting our disciplined capital allocation. We plan to continue to prioritize strengthening our balance sheet by using our strong free cash flow to further reduce debt this year, thereby creating significant capital deployment optionality for the future. Overall, we continue to execute with discipline and deliver strong results against our strategic priorities. We are entering the back half of the year with significant momentum, increased conviction in our strategy, and growing confidence in the strength of our portfolio and investment approach. Before I turn the call over to Mark, I'd like to highlight another important milestone.

Bioventus was recently recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a best company to work for. This recognition is a testament to the talent, commitment, and culture of our world-class team. It further strengthens our resolve as we continue our journey to build Bioventus into a leading $1 billion med tech company that delivers exceptional value for our customers, employees, shareholders, and all other stakeholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by highlighting that our performance this quarter reflects the strength of our strategy and our disciplined execution against the investment thesis we outlined. The combination of durable growth and momentum in our core business and peer-leading gross margin is enabling us to fund the investment into our 4 growth drivers. In the near term, each of these 4 areas of growth are generating encouraging evidence and increasing our confidence in future revenue acceleration. At the same time, we continue to deliver on our commitment to improve profitability and generate strong cash flow. This powerful combination sets us apart and positions us to create meaningful long-term value for our stakeholders. Turning to our headline results from the second quarter, revenue of $153 million increased 4% compared to the prior year period.