Q3 2024 Paragon 28 Inc Earnings Call
Thank you for joining us today. We are currently finalising preparations for today's conference call with Paragon 28.
Whilst we are waiting to begin we do remind you to press star one if you have any questions you wish to ask during the Q&A segment today. We'll be starting today's call momentarily. Thank you again for your patience.
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Thank you.
Thank you all for joining. I would like to welcome you all to the Paragon 28, 3rd Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call.
Currently participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session at the end of today's call.
Speaker Change: As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to hand the call over to your host today, Mr. Matthew Brinckman, SVP of Strategy and Investor Relations. Mr. Brinckman, please go ahead.
Matthew Brinckman: Good afternoon and thank you for joining Paragon28's third quarter 2024 financial results and earnings call. Presenting on today's call are Albert DaCosta, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Shadi Chahine, Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Supply Chain Operations.
Matthew Brinckman: Before we begin, I would like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Matthew Brinckman: Forward-looking statements include statements made as to the company's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations, or predictions of future events, results, or performance.
Matthew Brinckman: These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.
Matthew Brinckman: All forward-looking statements are based upon current available information, and Paragon 28 assumes no obligation, except as required by law, to update these statements.
Matthew Brinckman: Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that may impact these forward-looking statements is contained from time to time in the company's SEC filings and in the press release that was issued earlier today.
Matthew Brinckman: During this presentation we will refer to the non-GAAP financial measures of adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, and constant currency net revenue growth.
Matthew Brinckman: A Reconciliation to the Most Comparable Gap Financial Measures, Net Income, Cash from Operating Activities, and Reported Net Revenue Growth, respectively, are contained in our press release issued earlier today.
Albert DaCosta: And with that, I will now turn the call over to Albert.
Albert DaCosta: Thanks, Matt. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2024 earnings call.
Albert DaCosta: To start, I want to thank the Paragon 2018 for their continued dedication.
Albert DaCosta: Thanks to their collective effort, E28 has been able to help improve the lives of over 52,000 patients worldwide year to date.
Albert DaCosta: I am truly grateful for their commitment to always ensure we are there for our surging customers and I am inspired by the impact we are continuing to make as a company.
Speaker Change: 2024 has been one of the most pivotal years in P-28's journey as a public company, marking a period of tremendous progress and transformation.
Speaker Change: This year was incredible, with 13 launches here today, which truly demonstrates our deep commitment to delivering best-in-class solutions to our surgeons and patients, and raising the bar in foot and ankle.
Speaker Change: Our continued focus on innovation and commercial execution is why we have been able to grow well over twice the market rate in every quarter since going public in 2021 and really since the company's inception.
Speaker Change: and we are now quickly ramping up our operational efficiency to put us on a trajectory for sustainable and profitable growth.
Speaker Change: Our consistent growth, combined with the momentum we have in driving operational excellence, has Paragon positioned exceptionally well.
Now turning to our third quarter performance.
Speaker Change: Global revenue for the third quarter of 2024 was a record $62.3 million, representing 18.1% reported and 17.6% constant currency growth.
Speaker Change: We had strong growth across our portfolio at over twice the rate of the broader foot and ankle market and continue to have significant momentum from our recent product launches.
Speaker Change: Looking at the U.S. business performance, revenue for the third quarter of 2024 was $51.2 million, representing 14.8% reported growth.
Speaker Change: We had one extra billing day in the U.S. this quarter, contributing approximately 150 basis points of tailwind in the quarter.
Speaker Change: We finished the quarter with 2,244 active surge in customers, representing a 9% increase compared to the third quarter of 23.
Speaker Change: Over the same time period, we increased our U.S. producing sales rep roster by 10.5% to 284 reps and saw a 4% increase in productivity across our rep base.
Speaker Change: Third quarter international revenue was $11.2 million, representing 35.7% reported and 32.8% consecurency growth.
Speaker Change: International growth continues to be driven by our core markets of the UK, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and Spain, where we have made focused investments in market expansion in recent years.
Speaker Change: Across all geographies, our top-line performance continues to be driven by our innovative product portfolio, delivered by our dedicated sales force.
Speaker Change: As noted during our previous earnings call, we saw some degree of choppiness in our sales trends entering the third quarter. Those fluctuations we experienced abated later in the quarter and we continue to see steady demand for our products.
Speaker Change: Our balanced portfolio offers a wide variety of product options to our surgeon customers, enabling P28 to continue growing, despite shifts in surgeon preference or patient demand.
Speaker Change: We see tremendous growth opportunity for the foot and ankle market over the long term and believe we are well positioned to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.
Speaker Change: I will now turn to a few key updates on our product portfolio.
Speaker Change: We've done an incredible job as a company, continuously innovating and bringing novel products to market, and 2024 really stands out with 13 new product launches to date, and many of our recent launches were in high growth and highly strategic end markets.
including our first SMART 28 module.
Speaker Change: I cannot overstate how pleased I am with our development team's ability to deliver such meaningful products at the pace and quality we've done so this year. And I am incredibly excited to see these products changing the standard of care.
Speaker Change: I receive updates every day, sometimes several an hour, from both our sales team and surging customers with results from recent cases that demonstrate we are achieving our mission to improve foot and ankle patient outcomes.
Speaker Change: As a reminder, we launched 11 products through our last earnings call, including our first Smart 28 module. And in October, we launched two new products. The first was the Phantom Fibular Nail System designed to offer surgeons a less invasive option for treating ankle fractures.
Speaker Change: There's a lot of excitement for that product to start the fourth quarter. And it's also highly complimentary to our broader ankle trauma and soft tissue products.
Speaker Change: The second launch was a short stem tibia implant for our Apex3D total ankle replacement system, which allows us to cater to a broader range of total ankle patients, specifically those with complex anatomy.
Speaker Change: The short stem tibia implant and our recently launched right angle drill are both on limited market release and we expect they will be key drivers for our ankle portfolio in the future.
Speaker Change: The products we launched so far this year are setting new benchmarks for the company and for our market.
Speaker Change: There are too many great products this year to go through each in specific detail, but the adoption and feedback across the board has been overwhelmingly positive from our surgeons and reps alike.
Speaker Change: We believe our strong foundation and the momentum from our recent product launches put us in a great position to drive sustainable growth moving forward.
Speaker Change: We remain laser focused on growth while also sharpening our focus on operational efficiency and capital allocation as highlighted in our last quarter's earnings call.
Speaker Change: Shadi will share details momentarily, but from my perspective, I am pleased to say our efficiency plan is progressing better than expected and resulted in substantial improvement to operating expense and free cash flow.
Speaker Change: In summary, we are pleased with our performance in this pivotal third quarter. We have incredible momentum driven by our new products, and we are tracking well against our key operational efficiency plans.
Speaker Change: We believe that now, more than ever, P-28 is positioned for long-term sustainable growth and operational excellence.
Speaker Change: We are highly confident in our ability to execute and believe we are very well aligned to drive shareholder value with every dollar invested.
I will now turn it over to Shadi.
Speaker Change: But before I do, I want to say that Chadi has been an incredible addition to our team, and as a partner to me in particular. His leadership has had a meaningful impact on our organization, and he has been critical in our ability to drive the results we are able to share this quarter. We are very happy to have him.
All right, Shadi, the floor is yours.
Albert DaCosta: Albert, thank you very much for your kind words. Here we are, a little over 90 days since our last earnings call, and I believe we've made significant progress.
Albert DaCosta: I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in every facet of the company, having met with many stakeholders across North America, Europe, and Australia, including teammates, sale representatives, suppliers, and certain customers.
Albert DaCosta: I've been inspired to see the team's dedication to driving Paragon 28's mission.
and continuously improving the business in every way.
Albert DaCosta: From our investment in innovation and sales force to our operational efficiency initiatives, it's clear to me that P28 has a strong foundation for sustainable success in foot and ankle.
Albert DaCosta: Last quarter, we set our top priorities beyond continuing to deliver above-market and strong top-line growth are to achieve EBITDA positivity in 2025 and cash flow positivity in 2026.
Albert DaCosta: by maintaining a disciplined focus on operational excellence and optimizing our cost structure.
Albert DaCosta: As seen in our third quarter results, we are pacing ahead of schedule compared to our expectations.
Albert DaCosta: While there is still work to do, we are confident in our ability to continue to execute on the cost optimization actions needed to drive further leverage in the P&L.
Albert DaCosta: We are working to ensure every dollar invested goes towards strengthening our market position, delivering innovative solutions, and ultimately creating value for all stakeholders.
Albert DaCosta: I'm excited about the progress we are making, and know that I speak for the entire company when I say this is just the beginning, and we remain committed to delivering on these operational priorities to position the company for long-term profitable growth.
Now turning to the rest of the PNL.
Albert DaCosta: Gross margin for the quarter was 74.1 percent, a 90 basis point sequential decrease compared to 75 percent in the second quarter of 2024.
Albert DaCosta: We expect gross margin will stabilize at around 75% for the full year of 2024.
and have several initiatives in place to drive improvement.
Albert DaCosta: including actions to reduce pricing of legacy SKUs to pre-COVID level and overall inventory optimization. In addition, we expect a tailwind over time as we sell through high-cost inventory.
Albert DaCosta: Third quarter total operating expense was $54.6 million, representing 87.6% of net revenue for the quarter.
Albert DaCosta: This represents a 969 basis point improvement compared to the prior year period and a 500 basis point sequential improvement compared to the second quarter of 2024.
Albert DaCosta: Operating expense in the third quarter included $986,000 of non-requiring severance costs.
Albert DaCosta: A 150 basis points non-recurring headwind to our OPEX year-over-year and sequentially.
Albert DaCosta: We are proud of these results and the improvement we have made in the quarter to right-side our cost base.
Albert DaCosta: Looking ahead, the fourth quarter will be our first full quarter where we expect to see the full effect following the implementation of our restructuring program.
Albert DaCosta: R&D expense in the quarter was $5.6 million, or 9.1% of revenue, compared to $7.2 million, or 13.7% of revenue, year over year.
Albert DaCosta: The $1.6 million improvement was driven by the implementation of cost-saving initiatives to lower outsourced consulting services.
partially upset by increased investment in Personnel.
Albert DaCosta: Furthermore, the decrease was driven by a shift in timing of certain development and regulatory activity to the fourth quarter of 24 and into 25.
Albert DaCosta: SG&A expense in the quarter was $49 million, a $4.8 million or 11% increase compared to the third quarter of 2023.
Albert DaCosta: As a percentage of revenue, SG&A improved over 500 basis points to 78.6% compared to the prior year period.
Albert DaCosta: The year-over-year increase in SG&A expense was primarily driven by increased valuable commission expense related to net revenue growth.
Albert DaCosta: and an increase in professional services associated with the restatement and remediation plan, which we expect will decrease over the next few quarters.
Albert DaCosta: These costs were partially offset by our restructuring program and cost optimization plans announced last quarter.
Albert DaCosta: Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2024 was a profit of $432,000.
Albert DaCosta: in improvement of $3.2 million compared to the third quarter of 2023.
Albert DaCosta: and a $3.4 million sequential improvement compared to the second quarter of 2024.
Albert DaCosta: This is an inflection point for the company and marks the first full quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA since the company IPO in October of 2021.
Albert DaCosta: We believe it is also a strong indicator that we are quickly delivering on our stated priorities to drive improved operating leverage.
Now, turning to our cash flow and liquidity.
Albert DaCosta: Pre-cash flow for the third quarter of 2024 was a use of $6.3 million.
Albert DaCosta: marking a 69.5% improvement compared to a use of $20.7 million in the third quarter of 2023.
Albert DaCosta: Sequentially, free cash flow improved 54.7% compared to $13.7 million in the second quarter of 2024.
Albert DaCosta: The step-up was driven by the company's ability to drive strong earnings improvement, optimize kit and instrument capex deployment, and reduce networking capital.
Albert DaCosta: Taking a closer look at our net working capital, since it's a major driver of our free cash flow, we have seen solid improvements.
Albert DaCosta: Starting with our day sales outstanding, we ended the third quarter at 52 days compared to 58 days in the third quarter of 2023.
Albert DaCosta: Looking at days payable outstanding, we ended the third quarter at 118 days compared to 210 days in the third quarter of 2023.
Albert DaCosta: Lastly, on Days Inventory Outstanding, we ended the third quarter at 545 days of net inventory compared to 683 days in the third quarter of 2023.
Albert DaCosta: We ended the third quarter of 2024 with $89.1 million of total liquidity, consisting of $39.1 million of cash on the balance sheet and $50 million available to our credit facilities.
Albert DaCosta: At this time, we are comfortable with our existing capital structure and have enough cash on the balance sheet to fund operations.
Albert DaCosta: The sizable improvements across operating expense and working capital add to our conviction and demonstrate our ability to balance strong growth while also managing our cost and cash position effectively under our current capital structure.
Now, turning to revenue guidance and future outlook.
Albert DaCosta: We are increasing our net revenue guidance and now expect net revenue for the full year of 2024, ranging from $252 million to $256 million.
Albert DaCosta: representing reporting growth of 16.5% to 18.3% at current foreign exchange rates.
Albert DaCosta: Furthermore, we expect continued focus on operational excellence to deliver improved earnings and free cash flow sequentially in the post-quarter.
Albert DaCosta: Looking ahead at 2025, we have the track record to outpace the broader foot and ankle market growth.
Albert DaCosta: We'll be coming off a year with several significant product launches and remain highly confident in our commercial strategy.
Albert DaCosta: And as we have demonstrated in the third quarter, we are taking the necessary steps to optimize all aspects of the company to improve operations, manage costs, and preserve cash.
Albert DaCosta: Last quarter, we communicated two major operational priorities to be adjusted EBITDA positive in 2025 and free cash flow positive in 2026.
Albert DaCosta: As you saw from our Q3 performance, we are executing well and ahead of schedule to deliver on those priorities.
Albert DaCosta: Considering our ability to execute against our strategy, we are comfortable with our current capital structure, including our cash balance, and do not see an operational need for incremental diluted capital to achieve our goals.
Speaker Change: We will now start our Q&A session. Operator, may we have the first question, please?
Speaker Change: Absolutely Shadi, just as a quick reminder it is star followed by one to ask any questions.
Speaker Change: We have Matthew O'Brien with Piper Sandler on the line. Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Hey, this is Phil Han for Matt. Thanks for taking our questions and congrats on the quarter. For starters, guidance for the year was taken up by a bit more than the beat today, especially the low end.
Speaker Change: Curious to hear your thoughts on how the foot and ankle market fared in Q3. Was there still softness that you called out on the Q2 call? And how do you expect this trend to continue into Q4?
Albert DaCosta: You got it. Thanks for the question, Phil. This is Albert.
Albert DaCosta: For starters, I think some of the other companies were characterizing that as softness. I think we called it a little bit more choppiness and the reason being just ours wasn't really confined to a product segment or any particular region. It was more of a week-to-week fluctuation. I'm happy to say that that
Albert DaCosta: mostly abated at the end of Q3 and some of the momentum going into Q4 has us optimistic that that's behind us.
Speaker Change: That's helpful and I guess just level setting us for 2025 and you know I understand you probably won't say much here but is your expectation for the foot and ankle market to have more normalized growth call it you know the historic 7% and then given all these products 13 year to date is your belief still that Paragon can grow somewhere in the two to three times the rest of this market?
Speaker Change: Yeah, that's a great question. So one, I want to just remind you that the foot and ankle market for one is really exciting just because there's still
Speaker Change: really high complication rates and for a company like Paragon that's really positioned with innovative technology to meet those needs.
Speaker Change: It positions us perfectly, so I'm really optimistic that this market still has a lot of runway for growth. 25, I think, is going to have some nice...
Speaker Change: energy around it, coupled with one of the most exciting years for product launches for us. 2024, I should say historically Paragon 28 had a really nice year-to-year trajectory of product introductions.
Speaker Change: This year was monumental. We launched 13 so far year to date meaningful product introductions.
Speaker Change: that I think has carried a lot of excitement in 24.
Speaker Change: But even more so is going to be a real nice driver of momentum for us in 25 and beyond. So, really excited about 25. We'll be commenting on 25 at our Q4 earnings call in February. We'll be offering a little bit more information on the year.
Speaker Change: But as far as your question goes, I think 2025 is going to be an exciting year.
Thanks so much.
You got it.
Speaker Change: We now have the next question from Caitlin Croydon with Planacord, please go ahead.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Hey, thanks so much for taking the questions and congrats on a great quarter.
Speaker Change: So you've talked about Q4 being where you will see the full effect of your restructuring program. Any more color you can provide for where you expect, you know, the rest of these cost savings, and do you still expect kind of the $8 million in annualized OPEC savings, you know, on the whole in the second half?
Thank you, Caitlin. This is Shadi.
Speaker Change: Really the way I would like you to look at this is we had somewhat a one-time non-recurring restructuring program that we've announced where it was a reduction in force and we announced it in August. The purpose of this was to right-side the organization, streamline our processes.
Speaker Change: and this is largely complete and this is what we've spoken about when we spoke about the eight million dollar savings on an annualized basis.
Speaker Change: We expect most of this to happen from a phasing point of view in Q4 and some of it will be completed in 2025.
Speaker Change: Having said that, there is another portion that is the overall cost optimization, and this is something that I'm driving to make sure that our investments are in the right areas serving our surgeon customers and our patients.
Speaker Change: And that is an ongoing effort, starting, and I can share with you, with zero-based budgeting.
Speaker Change: for our operating plan to make sure that we allocate our funds in the areas that drive supporting surgeon customers and patients.
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: That's great. Thanks so much. And, you know, you also talked last quarter about your expectations to
Speaker Change: achieved EBITDA positivity in 2025 and talked to it this quarter as well and you know having hit that on a quarterly basis this quarter and expectations for the Q4, can you talk about the cadence of just the quarterly EBITDA positivity going forward in 2025?
Sure, so let's speak about 24 first.
Really, we are very happy with...
Speaker Change: with what we delivered in Q3 and expect this to be incrementally better in Q4. In regards to 2025, as you know, our market is
Speaker Change: seasonal and we tend to have a lot of our expenses happening in the first half of the year versus second half.
Speaker Change: Having said that, the actions that we are taking to be EBITDA positive are well in place and ongoing and I expect
Speaker Change: really significant improvement year-on-year when it comes to EBITDA deliverables in 2025 versus 2024.
Thank you.
Awesome, thanks so much.
Thank you, Caitlin. Thank you.
Speaker Change: We now have Mike Mattson with Needham & Co. on the line.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. I guess, you know, first, you know, just given all of the new products that you did launch in 2024,
Speaker Change: You know, how should we think about how the impact of those carries through into the 25? I mean, I would imagine that you still get a pretty big, you know, benefit, particularly from the ones that were launched maybe more in the second half of 24. Is that a reasonable assumption?
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks for the question, Craig.
Speaker Change: The product launches typically have about a six month to a year ramp up.
Speaker Change: Period, it takes a little while for our sales reps to get acquainted with technology and our surgeons to become familiar with it.
Speaker Change: It also takes a little bit of time to get the hospitals Open to bringing some of that new technology and so generally speaking we see about a year lag
Speaker Change: in the real ramp-up phase. This year in particular, we've been pretty excited. It's overperformed.
Speaker Change: our expectations. Some of the products we've launched, the ones in Q1, but also the ones in Q2 and even Q3. In October, we launched the Clibular Nail.
Speaker Change: and we launched the short stem tibia component which is a complement to our total ankle franchise and and really a critical piece for patients with more severe deformities.
Those products are off to an incredible start.
Speaker Change: beyond our expectations. So to answer your question, yeah, we'd expect to see some a real boost in the energy going into 2025, more so maybe for the ones in the second half of the year. But this year has been, like I mentioned before, it's been pretty monumental for products. So we're excited about what that means for 2025.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Okay, got it, thanks. And then just one on the balance sheet. So, it was good to see that the inventory came down as much as it did the inventory days. But,
Speaker Change: It's still pretty high, I guess, by orthopedic industry standards. So, what are you doing to get that down to more normal levels? And I guess, what is a normal level or appropriate level for Paragon?
Speaker Change: It seems like most companies, or the PX companies, are kind of in the one-year range, but I don't know, 365 days, I don't know if that's right or not.
Shadi Chahine
Speaker Change: Thank you for the question. We are really very happy about what the team has done in a relatively short period of time in reducing our inventory levels. This is not an easy nut to crack and it's going to take time because we are a growth company and we need to invest.
Speaker Change: in our capital deployment. That's where we can be smart, is how we deploy and the efficiency in deployment.
Speaker Change: All I can say at this point in time is I'm laser-focused on reducing our inventory over time, and I expect this to be a continuing effort year on year and quarter on quarter.
Speaker Change: notwithstanding that there could be some seasonality in that inventory reduction.
Speaker Change: But the focus is there, and as you mentioned the orthopedic, I would caution you, as usually we are much more on the trauma side of orthopedic than on the high joints. And that is much less predictive, and therefore we need more inventory in the field to manage it. And with that, we are absolutely right, and I agree with you, that there is room for improvement, and we are going to continue to improve our inventory levels for the rest of 2024 and going into 2025 and beyond.
Okay, got it. Thanks.
Speaker Change: Thank you, Mike. We now have David Tuckley with Citizens J&D.
I'm sure.
Speaker Change: I'd say go Gators, Albert, but it's a tough one. I think you guys mentioned a four percent increase in rep productivity in the quarter and I just wondered if you might give us any colors, what is driving that?
Yeah, thanks, and we'll talk about the Gators after hours.
I'll be...
Speaker Change: We've actually had a really promising year in terms of bringing new reps on board and the timing of that's been pretty excellent with some of the product launches we've had this year.
Speaker Change: And so I think what you're seeing is we're expanding the base of producing sales reps.
Speaker Change: while at the same time we're really penetrating some of our existing accounts with some of this new technology. So it's been.
Speaker Change: It's been a great year. Usually when you add reps to that producing base, they come in at a lower level. And so you see some fluctuations in productivity this year, again, just
Speaker Change: highlighting the product launches and some of the excitement around that. It's been a pretty exciting year for both bringing on new reps and to seeing that productivity increase.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: And as a follow-up, you mentioned the short stem tibia. I'm just curious, you know, what percent of that market do you think has a complex anatomy? And could you maybe even talk about the competitive landscape there? Do other people have that as well? Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah, that's a great question. One thing I'll point out is I've made this comment before that I think the total ankle franchise is one that's going to grow for the foreseeable future. And when I say grow, it means we're going to keep considering more and more deformities.
Speaker Change: in our optionality that we're building into the system. This is one of those options. So for patients that might present.
Speaker Change: with more tilt in their ankle, more varus valgus deformity. They tend to have more soft tissue instability.
Speaker Change: and those patients we look for augmenting that with a little bit more stability in the tibia in particular. And so that's what we're calling out with the short stem tibia. We're really careful not to call it a revision component because some of these patients are presenting as primary patients.
Speaker Change: for their total ankle. And so it's just more of a complex consideration, but...
Speaker Change: really helpful in our entire ankle franchise. I can't break down the volume of patients that are presenting with that, and some of this is surgeon preference. Some surgeons just like to see a little bit more fixation in the tibia, and this is an implant that I think is just going to keep complementing that franchise.
Speaker Change: And, by the way, sorry, one more thing there, we're also coupling with that 90-degree drill.
Speaker Change: which is game-changing in our opinion. This is now an instrument that can really improve the precision with that short stem and even our existing primary component to get that installed into patients with either harder bone or just difficult-to-access environments.
All right.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: A question from Craig Boucher with Bank of America on the line. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I've been hopping around calls, so I apologize if you guys have already touched on this. But, Albert, I guess I wanted to ask, I know I try it every quarter, but just in terms of your segments or the segments of the financial market,
if any stood out more than others.
and I ask maybe...
Speaker Change: I wanted to ask again this quarter, just because there have been comments this year of some of the segments having some more pressure than than others from some of the other players in the space. So just wanted to get your sense for or get a sense for your
Speaker Change: your portfolio and how that's performed and then if you're seeing any pressure in any one of the segments within the market growth.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thanks for the question, Craig, and I know you're bouncing around, so we really appreciate you jumping on the call.
Speaker Change: To start, maybe this is an area for us to do what we would call a humble brag, right?
Speaker Change: Our business model has been really focused on the entire foot and ankle environment. So all five subsegments really matter to us. And we feel like addressing those means a lot to our foot and ankle surgeons, but it also means we're creating a more diverse business. And that diversity really helps us when there's fluctuations in the market.
Speaker Change: This year in particular has been a little bit unusual for us to try to rationalize what we're hearing in the space because of the energy around some of our product launches. For example, this has been a pretty strong year for us in launching both forefoot procedures, so we've launched a lot in the distal MIS
Speaker Change: environment for bunion correction. We've launched the power console there. We also launched our smart 28 buniomatic
Speaker Change: module which has had a lot of excitement and so in one sense I feel like we're growing through
Speaker Change: any sensation in the market. The choppiness for us wasn't, we couldn't characterize it by any one particular segment. It was more of a week-to-week fluctuation, and we were growing. Our
Speaker Change: Fracture franchise also had a lot of excitement. We launched a couple of key products around soft tissue repair, particularly related to ankle fractures.
Speaker Change: game-changing technology and the reflex and the reinforced products there. They were pushing a lot of energy there. And then even more recently, we launched the Fibular now, which
has had an incredible reception.
Speaker Change: The short way of saying, we've heard some of our competitors talking about softness in the market.
We looked carefully. We feel like we've grown through that.
Speaker Change: We also feel like our business model positions focused in foot and ankle, but spread across all of foot and ankle has really helped us to weather any of those types of headwinds.
Speaker Change: Got it. Thanks, Albert. And maybe I'll touch on free cash flow as well. Obviously, you saw a big improvement this quarter.
Speaker Change: It was a focus of your initiatives on cost control. So I guess the question is, you know, maybe big picture, you know, how to think about what you're doing from a free cash flow perspective. How and what you're going to do going forward. And I guess.
Speaker Change: Also, the ability to ensure that you can maintain the top-line revenue growth while still managing the free cash flow, managing your spend. So, maybe just a little perspective on how to think about that for obviously Q4, but then even as we look forward for the next couple of years.
Thank you.
Craig Boucher: Sure, Craig. Thank you. Thank you for your question. I think a great question because.
This is, this is not about...
about the P&L or about cost.
Craig Boucher: This is about the company, and Albert, in the last quarter, really set the tone in highlighting the key operational priorities that are being EBITDA positive in 2025 and cash flow positive in 2026.
And as you saw from my prepared remarks...
We are not only delivering on these...
Craig Boucher: on these priorities, but really very happy to report that we are exceeding these deliverables starting with Q3.
Craig Boucher: This is not only about cost containment. This is really cost optimization. This is right-sizing the organization. But this is also looking at the balance sheet, looking at our inventory, and putting actions in place and owners to make sure that we also right-size the inventory over time. In addition, looking at our receivable, make sure that we are collecting on time, make sure that we are also a partner to our suppliers and we pay them on time.
Craig Boucher: So, this is really about our DNA going forward, that we want to make sure that while capitalizing on the growth prospects of Paragon 28, and Albert rightly discussed the market, the company, we also are able, and we proved that in Q3, that we are able to grow at two and three times the market while delivering EBITDA positivity and improving our cash position. And I expect this to continue, especially when you compare year-on-year, in the rest of 2024 and 2025 and beyond.
Thank you for watching!
Thanks for taking the questions.
Of course. Thank you. Thank you, Craig.
Speaker Change: Thank you, Greg. Just a reminder that the staff vote by one to have a question, and your next question comes from Brandon Barquess with William Blair. Your line is open.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Hey everyone, thanks for taking the question. Albert, maybe just for you to start, we're a couple of months into the launch of SMART28. That's of course been a big focus for you for a long time here. Can you just talk a little bit about how the first cases are going? What are you excited about? What's kind of the future going on there? And any updates we can expect from SMART28 going into 2025?
Speaker Change: Trembling because I really want to talk about the success of
Speaker Change: some of these products in particular. Look, I think one of the best ways to characterize
Smart 28 so far that first module
Speaker Change: is, once you see what you see with that, it's hard to go back.
Speaker Change: Right. The ability to really, on a fine scale, understand the deformity better.
Speaker Change: what these patients are truly presenting with, what the combination of deformities are.
Speaker Change: and then mapping out a solution that's really patient-specific. We're really mapping out a solution based on how exactly that patient's presenting.
Speaker Change: When a surgeon sees that valuable information and we're able to recreate that in the operating room, I think it's really hard to go back. And at least that's the feedback that we've gotten. One of our surgeons described it best. He's a surgeon out of Utah. He said,
You know, it's like flying a plane.
Speaker Change: at night, right? You're flying that plane instrumented, and that's how he sees the value of Smart 28 now. He's in the operating room, and some of the tools that we use in the operating room, in particular, fluoroscopy, is a very imperfect science. So depending on the position of the foot and the position of that C-arm,
Speaker Change: It can really show us a distorted view of what that patient's really presenting there. This gives us the ability to not rely on that imperfect imaging to correct these patients.
Speaker Change: But to use that imaging only to confirm that we've corrected these patients. So it's a really really comforting perspective that
He used, and I was...
Speaker Change: excited that he said that because I hadn't thought about it that way but it's it's so far the short way of answering that Brandon is the response has been really strong.
Speaker Change: This is a new way of thinking about, in particular, forefoot procedures, and it happens to be a really, really three-dimensionally complex environment for surgeons to replicate in the operating room, and we're happy that we can improve that.
Great.
Speaker Change: And maybe since you know on your note that you mentioned we're talking a little bit more finance maybe Chadi for you as you look at gross margins I appreciate the comments you gave in your prepared remarks that you know you have line of sight to improvement can you just talk a little bit about what what are kind of the milestones you need here to kind of get back up to 80 plus gross margin and how does that progress over the next several quarters as we think about 2025 and 2026 for updating our models. Thanks.
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Brendan.
Since last quarter, we moved away from
from the 80%. The way I'm looking at...
Speaker Change: at our business, and all the priorities of EBITDA Positivity and CASTO Positivity assume this, is we have a somewhat a floor of around 75% that we expect to improve from as we move into 2025.
Speaker Change: Now, the level of incremental, we will be talking about this in February for 2025, but really, we're moving away from the 80%, and I would like us to focus
Speaker Change: where we need it. So these are the actions that we are taking, but this is going to be a continued effort to improve on our margin over time, but this is not going to be overnight.
Speaker Change: We'll go ahead and wrap things up here. So thanks, everybody, for your time today. I really appreciate you jumping on here. If you have any further questions, please reach out. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing many of you at our future investor conferences coming up. That concludes our call. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you all for joining today's call with Paragon 28. I can confirm today's call has now concluded. You may now disconnect from the call and please enjoy the rest of your day.
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