Hello, and welcome to Hemonetics Corporation's second quarter 2027 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. I would now like to turn the call over to Olga Guyette. You may begin.

Good morning and thank you for joining us for Humanetics second quarter fiscal year 2027 conference call and webcast. I'm joined today by Chris Simon, our CEO, and James D'Arecca, our CFO. This morning reported second quarter and first half fiscal 2027 results and updated our fiscal 2027 guidance. Our earnings release, Supplemental presentation and related materials are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we will use both reported and organic revenue growth rates that exclude the impact of FX, the exit of certain liquid solution products, and our fiscal year 2027 guidance is also adjusted for the impact of the 53rd week. We'll also refer to other non-GAAP financial measures to help investors understand Humanetics' ongoing business performance. Please note that these measures exclude certain charges and income items. A full list of excluded items, reconciliations to our GAAP results, and comparisons with the prior year periods are provided in our earnings release. Our remarks today include forward-looking statements and our actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results. Factors that may cause our results to differ include those referenced in the Safe Harbor Statement in today's earnings release, and our other SEC filing. We did not undertake an obligation to update this forward-looking statement. And now, I'd like to turn it over to Chris.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We delivered a strong quarter and first half with growth across plasma, blood management and interventional technologies. Organic revenue growth was 10% in the second quarter and 8% in the first half and adjusted earnings per share was $1.35 in the quarter and $2.49 in the first half, growing 6% in both periods. Beyond these strong results, we reached several important milestones that position us for future growth. We expanded our CSL relationship, secured key regulatory approvals, and launched innovative Med-Surg products. These achievements reflect years of investment in our technology, our customer relationships, and our execution. Let's discuss our business results. MedSurg delivered a solid quarter of broad-based growth, increasing 6% organically in both the second quarter and first half. Blood management technologies grew 7% organically in the quarter and 8% in the first half. Within BMT, hemostasis management growth was driven by greater account penetration, higher tag utilization, and continued share gains. The TAG 5000 capital upgrade cycle is winding down, but durable growth is being driven by mid-teens recurring TAG 6S disposables growth. Transfusion management revenue grew well into the double digits in both periods, becoming an increasingly meaningful contributor to the franchise. With our evolving portfolio, we are building our high-margin recurring revenue base while giving customers greater flexibility to adopt integrated software solutions that improve workflow automation, transfusion safety, and traceability. This growth was partially offset by cell salvage. Interventional technologies grew 3% organically in both the second quarter and first half, sustaining the return to growth established in Q1. Vascular closure led performance with Fascade MVP and MVP XL growing in the low double digits in electrophysiology in both periods. Strong demand and improved commercial execution are driving greater utilization and share gains as the underlying market stabilizes. Vascular closure momentum was partially offset by a challenging prior year comparison in esophageal cooling. We also advanced our growth strategy through several important milestones. We extended Vascaid MVP XL globally with initial CE mark certification and Japanese regulatory approval for the expanded indication. We launched the PACE Pro Guidewire, broadening our structural heart guidewire portfolio with a solution designed to improve procedural efficiency within familiar physician workflows. And we received US FDA approval for Percocel Elite, extending our vascular closure offering into large four structural heart and endovascular procedures. While these initiatives are not expected to materially contribute to FY27 revenue, they leverage our existing commercial infrastructure to broaden our market reach and strengthen our runway for sustained long-term growth. Strong first half execution, improving momentum in interventional technologies and new product launches reinforce our confidence and the business's growth trajectory and significant long-term opportunity. However, we remain disciplined in our outlook, relying on demonstrated progress to inform our guidance. Therefore, we are reaffirming our fiscal 2027 MedSurg organic revenue growth guidance of mid single digits. Turning to apheresis, organic revenue grew 14% in the second quarter and 10% in the first half. Within that, Plasma grew 18% and 13% respectively, driven by prior share gains, strong underlying collections, and the rollout of Persona Plus. Second quarter global Plasma collections grew in the high single digits. Continuous long-term investment in our technology and our service delivery has helped us to gain share and accelerate adoption of our integrated platform. Persona Plus strengthens our offering by increasing plasma yield, improving center productivity, and lowering customers' cost per liter. The rollout is on schedule with substantial adoption across our customer base. Our expanded CSL relationship further validates the superiority of our value proposition. We are scaling capacity to supply CSL while supporting continued strong demand across our customer base. We anticipate completing the rollout of Nexus PCS with Persona Plus to all of CSL's US plasma centers before the end of calendar 2027. Continued Persona Plus adoption and additional share gains create multi-year durable growth with benefits extending beyond the initial implementations. We remain committed to advancing our technological advantage by investing in new capabilities that improve customer economics and the donor experience. Other apheresis was flat in the quarter and down modestly in the first half as strength in red cell collection was offset by order timing and continued portfolio rationalization. We are raising fiscal 2027 apheresis organic revenue growth guidance to high single digits from low to mid single digits, reflecting stronger first half performance Persona Plus Adoption, and formally confirmed CSL center conversions through Q3, partially offset by a modest decline in other apheresis. Consistent with our prior outlook, we have not factored in any incremental revenue contribution from second half plasma collections growth, and we expect our second half growth to be weighted towards Q4, reflecting certain contractual economics. We anticipate additional CSL share in our fourth quarter. However, we will wait until specific rollout plans are confirmed to incorporate that into our guidance. Our total company revenue first half results and greater visibility into customer commitments across our business support an increase in our fiscal 2027 revenue outlook. We now expect organic growth of six to nine percent, up from four to seven percent. and reported growth of 8% to 11%, up from 5% to 8%. We enter the second half with multiple catalysts to propel revenue growth ahead of our markets and the potential to accelerate earnings growth as we capture these opportunities. We are focused on executing customer conversions, advancing new product adoption and scaling to meet growing demand. We are turning durable growth into lasting value.

Over to you, James. Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. The momentum Chris described is increasingly evident in our financial performance. Favorable portfolio mix, growing recurring revenue, and strong cash generation reinforce the quality of our business model. With multiple growth catalysts ahead, we see a compelling opportunity to turn sustained revenue growth into stronger earnings power over time. Starting with profitability, Second quarter adjusted gross margin increased approximately 140 basis points year over year to 61.9%. This included a roughly 200 basis point benefit from tariff refunds, partially offset by a 60 basis point foreign exchange headwind. Excluding these two factors, gross margin was essentially flat. As a more favorable portfolio mix, coupled with recent innovation, offset higher manufacturing and supply chain costs. For the first half, adjusted gross margin increased approximately 60 basis points to 61.2%. Favorable portfolio mix and the second quarter tariff refund more than offset additional inflationary pressures and the margin impact of prior year software licensing revenue. Second quarter adjusted operating expenses increased 15% to $127.6 million, and first half expenses increased 11% to $253.2 million. Three factors drove the increase. First, investments to capture future growth, including Vivashore, commercial readiness for new product launches and regulatory approvals, combined with higher research and development costs as we continue to strengthen our technology. Second, higher personnel-related expenses including self-insured medical claims and performance-based compensation reflecting significant outperformance against our original annual plan. And finally, higher freight expense driven by increased volumes, higher fuel prices, and expedited shipments as we prioritize supply readiness to meet strong demand for our products. Adjusted operating margin was 26.3% in the quarter, down 40 basis points year over year and 24.9% for the first half, down 50 basis points. For fiscal 27, we now expect adjusted operating margin expansion of zero to 50 basis points compared with 50 to 100 basis points previously. This reflects investments ahead of plasma share gains, higher performance-based compensation, and continued cost pressures. Our priority is to build the capacity and supply reliability needed to execute the CSL rollout while serving strong demand across our customer base. We are committing manufacturing and distribution resources before the associated volumes fully materialize. As volume scale and logistics become more efficient, we expect the near-term costs to moderate, supporting stronger operating leverage. Our adjusted effective tax rate was 24.7% in the second quarter, generally consistent with the prior year period. The first half rate was 25.2% compared with 24.8% last year. Our strong operational execution delivered 6% adjusted EPS growth to $1.35, despite a challenging prior year comparison and higher interest expense, as the benefit of a lower diluted share count was largely offset by unfavorable foreign exchange. First half adjusted EPS also increased 6% to $2.49. For fiscal 27, We now expect adjusted earnings per diluted share growth in line with our increased reported revenue growth guidance of 8% to 11%. Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet, our strong cash generation continues to provide significant flexibility to fund our growth opportunities. Through the first half, operating cash flow increased 40% year over year to $180 million. driven by higher earnings and strong working capital performance. Free cash flow increased approximately 57% to $143 million despite higher capital expenditures to support growth. Free cash flow conversion was 166% in the quarter and 111% of adjusted net income on a trailing 12 month basis, demonstrating the underlying cash generating strength of our business. For fiscal 27, we now expect free cash flow conversion in excess of 80% of adjusted net income, inclusive of higher inventory, CapEx, and other investments supporting our near-term growth opportunities. We ended the quarter with approximately $261 million in cash and estimated net leverage of approximately 2.5 times EBITDA. as defined in our credit agreement. Our revolver balance remains at $200 million with no additional changes to our debt structure beyond the 50 million revolver repayment in our second quarter and the $100 million repayment year to date. Our capital allocation priorities remain clear. Fund our highest return organic growth opportunities, continue strengthening the balance sheet and preserve flexibility for shareholder returns through our existing repurchase authorization. Let me close our remarks with three key takeaways. First, fiscal 27 is a year of meaningful progress and investment in our future. We are delivering growth across our core businesses while preparing to execute the CSL rollout support strong customer demand and commercialize new technologies. These investments position us to capture the opportunities we have earned and sustain our leadership. Second, our growth runway extends well beyond fiscal 27. In plasma, share gains and broader persona plus adoption provide recurring revenue benefits that extend beyond the initial conversions. In MedSurg, sustained tech utilization, strong transfusion management growth, and new regulatory and innovation milestones in interventional technologies create additional avenues for growth across procedures and geographies. Third, we have the opportunity and financial flexibility to translate that growth into greater shareholder value. As volumes scale and our investments become more productive, we expect stronger operating leverage, strong cash generation, and our balance sheet gives us the flexibility to fund these opportunities, strengthen our financial position, and return capital to shareholders. We are building on our fiscal 27 momentum to deliver sustained above market growth and stronger earnings power for years to come. Our focus is clear. Execute for our customers, invest to lead, and turn that progress into lasting shareholder value. Thank you for joining us today. Operator, we will now open the call for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to ask the question, please press star 11 on your telephone Then wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of David Rescott with Baird. Your line is open.

Great. Thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the strong results here. I wanted to ask maybe first about CSL more broadly. I know there's some reference points for kind of the size of what that business used to be, what the margin profile of that business maybe used to be. So curious if you can again level set us on what we maybe should be anticipating when you think about the moving pieces around price, around some of the prior contracts that were in place with PCS2, and what kind of the setup here, again, from both a contribution perspective on the top line and margin. you know, looks like more broadly as well as what's contemplated in this outlook in the second half of the year.

Good morning, David. It's Chris. Thanks for the question. With regards to CSL, it's a significant growth opportunity for us, clearly, and we think it creates a multi-year runway for both accelerated revenue and earnings growth. First and foremost, the expanded relationship helps validate our technology leadership and the value that we're delivering both through higher yield and improved center productivity and also dependable execution. We do think the growth is going to extend beyond the annualization of this initial rollout with converted centers contributing recurring disposable use and providing a base for innovative product upgrades still to come. We really appreciate and understand the push for quantification and clarity of timing. However, for confidentiality and competitive reasons, we cannot disclose customer-specific economics and plans. We will continue to communicate the expected impact of the transition through our apheresis and total company guidance updates as more information becomes available. For here, what's included in our FY27 guidance update is commitments and execution that's already well in hand. So for 27, the outlook includes the already completed center conversions. We did pilot work together across a number of centers in September and began full-scale conversion in October. That continues as we speak. So that's included, as well as What we've been formally notified of through the end of our fiscal Q3, which is December 31st. We do expect additional conversions in fiscal Q4 as this rolls forward in earnest, but we've not included them in guidance. And again, for confidentiality and for competitive reasons, we're not going to share the customer forecast until we have absolute confirmation and specific dates, at which point we'll update accordingly. Thanks. Okay, that's helpful.

Maybe asking about this, thinking about this operating margin updated outlook, I guess first, it sounds like at least in plasma, maybe there was not a contribution from CSL in the second quarter, but maybe a big chunk of the revised operating margin outlook might account for some investment in building out capacity ahead of some of the contribution from the CSL side in the back half of this year. I know there's some headwinds on the fuel side and some other you know pieces there um so maybe could you help us uh think about you know what that that that revised operating margin outlook contemplates relative to CSL and then again just wanted to confirm that this quarter you just reported did not have any contribution from CSL and therefore the 18 percent growth was purely you know market and share capture thank you yes hi David it's James and yeah I can confirm uh there was minimal uh

DeMinimus CSL in the quarter didn't affect us really at all. Maybe on the operating margin question, I can take that first with a little bit of explanation as to what happened in the quarter and then jump to the outlook. So, I mean, overall, operating margins were broadly in line with our expectations and excluding the 200 basis points of tariff refunds Gross margin was essentially flat year over year after absorbing some FX headwinds. And we view that as a good outcome since our favorable portfolio mix fully offset higher net manufacturing and supply chain costs, including some of the ramp ahead of the CSL conversion. Now, operating margin was down 40 points year over year. And the story here is operating expense growth driven mainly by three factors. First was higher personnel-related costs, including some self-insured medical claims, but more importantly, higher performance-based compensation tied to our outperformance against our original plan. Secondly, there was higher freight costs. I think that's pretty obvious given the situation, but in our case, it's driven by volume, of course, fuel prices, and then expedited shipments as well. and then third was more just an investment in the business, including VivaSure and our two interventional technologies launches. So, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we now expect operating margin expansion of zero to 50 basis points for fiscal 27. That revision reflects our investment ahead of plasma share gains that you were asking about in manufacturing, warehousing, expedited freight, higher performance-based compensation, and continued inflation in freight, energy, and materials. Now, just in terms of the way this rolls out, some of that aforementioned elevated production costs Those are capitalized at inventory and flow through COGS in the second half as product is sold. So gross margin will carry part of the pressure, not just operating expenses. So you'll see it in both lines. And then finally, just maybe a word on phasing. We expect second half margin expansion to be weighted towards the fourth quarter, consistent with our revenue cadence including the contracted economics as Chris mentioned. So the expansion when it comes should be much more fourth quarter weighted. Thanks.

Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Marie Seibalt with U.S. Bancorp BTIG. Your line is open.

Good morning. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Just want to ask one very brief follow-up to David's question on CSL. Understand that you can't tell us much about the contract, but did want to just confirm, I think I heard that the contract includes Persona Plus, which is the latest platform that will help us just sort of understand margin contribution. So I just want to confirm that point with you.

Yeah, Marie, that's absolutely right. They're going to take the full suite of Persona, Persona Plus, and our updated software offerings.

Okay, very helpful. Thank you for that, Chris. And then a follow-up here on Perky Steel Elite. Wonderful to see that FDA approval here in the arterial side recently. Just want to hear a little bit about launch plans, any feedback, and then, you know, obviously complementary to the TAVR accessories with PacePro and SavvyWire. So maybe if you can detail for us the difference between those two guide wires and how you think about launching all of these products together into the TAVR call point. Thanks so much for taking the question.

Thank you, Marie. Yeah, we're excited. We just came back from TCT. I think it was a really great opportunity to unveil both products, PercuSeal Elite and PacePro, which are in the very, very early stages of launch. Percocil Elite is our entry into large-bore closure, both for TAVR and EVAR-type procedures, and we estimate that to be a $300 million global opportunity, growing in the high single digits, probably two-thirds of that's here in the U.S., so we're really excited. It's the first bioabsorbable We're going to take our time. There's been some failed launches in that segment already that we've learned from and we're learning from. So we're going to take a stepwise progression with a heavy emphasis on physician education and training. and build as we go. But we think we've got a really good opportunity to disrupt that market quite significantly with a product that over time will grow to be quite a meaningful contribution for us. PacePro is essentially a workhorse tab or guide wire. It's cleared for LV pacing. So we can use it on the RV side and we think that's a nice offering to the market. It's highly complimentary to SavvyWire. Very early days, but what we're experiencing is that it plays a different role and it taps into physician preference in ways that should avoid it being overly cannibalistic of our existing SavvyWire business. And it just makes, you know, the combination of PacePro, Percocil Elite, SavvyWire just helps our teams be all the more relevant in Structural Heart, which is really a great opportunity to get that IBT business back firing on all cylinders.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Joanne Winch with Citi. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. This is Anthony for Joanne. Thanks for taking our question. Back on the... I heard you said global collections grew high single digits. Are you able to share what that was in the U.S. and then what you're seeing in the market and then your expectations for U.S. collections in the back half of the fiscal year? Thank you.

Yeah, that plasma business continues to fire on all cylinders. Anthony, we've had both. meaningful collection volume. Our largest driver is the annualization of our prior share gains. And then we're really moving quite nicely with our persona plus adoption, you know, at or ahead of schedule there as well. Going forward, we didn't include any collection volume growth in our updated high single digit guidance. And it's not because We think the market's falling off a cliff or something, but rather that we don't control it, and so we don't want to necessarily be accountable for that in our forecasting. What we saw through the quarter and through the first half, U.S. collections have trended into mid to high single digits. and our OUS collections have been tracking well into the double digits. How that continues, we'll have to watch and see. We're certainly prepared to accommodate continued robust demand. But again, our guidance doesn't include collection volume as a primary driver in the second half. Instead, we'll look to share gains both with CSL and our other customers and the accelerated adoption of Persona Plus. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Vachoni with Mizuho Financial Group. Your line is open.

Thanks and congratulations here on the progress on both operating segments. Maybe a follow-up on CSL. Maybe just on the CapEx side, I know that on the manufacturing side of the equation for plasma, there was consolidation a few years ago as CSL left the building, CSL's back in the building. So do you need a growth capex cycle here to fund bringing them back into the fold? And then a quick follow up just on plasma. There was a cyber attack in Paris and it was targeting certain plasma and blood banks. Just wondering if there's any impact, either positive or negative, as you head into the back end of the year.

Yeah, Anthony, it's James. on CSL CapEx. And yes, yes, your instincts are right there. I would look at it really in two dimensions. One, we are going to have to expand manufacturing capacity. We're going to have to do that anyway since it was growing so well. So we will have to invest in line extensions and adding additional lines and packaging and so forth, warehousing, all the things that come with higher volumes of business. The second aspect of it is devices and those flow through our cash flow statement in a different way and that when we buy the devices they show up in inventory and when we place them they show up in capex but we will have to by additional devices. So that will ignite a new CapEx cycle for us where over the next two years you're going to see elevated capital expenditures as we move forward. But the return on those investments, it's one of the best uses of capital that we have.

Anthony, on the cyber attack in Europe, just another unfortunate example of The type of things that are going on in that environment. We haven't talked about it publicly, but we were very fortunate and excited about re-engaging with EFS, a major collector in France. And that transition to our product line there is underway. Fortunately, we haven't been involved, and we're obviously in discussion with EFS around all of this, but fortunately we've not been affected by the cyber attack. We have safeguards in place. I don't know that anybody's truly safe in this environment, but we pride ourselves on our ability to respond. In this case, fortunately, we haven't had to. It's not affecting us in any way.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alan Gong with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks for the question. I just wanted to touch back on a question that was asked earlier, just in terms of, you know, the potential margin contribution from CSL. I understand you don't want to, you know, give away the specifics of the deal, but just curious, given, you know, the urgent profile of your core plasma business and the implications of having this deal lined up, how much of a contributor that could be in 2027, calendar 2027, I suppose?

Yeah, Alan, it's Chris. Thanks for the question. James can give you the breakdown, but let me just address it at a higher level because I want to be crystal clear. While we took that guidance down in the near term to accommodate the growth and some of the inflationary pressures we're dealing with in the moment, we're still very confident that this is a business that can deliver high 20s operating margins or better as we scale. And that scaling will occur on both of our operating groups. To your question within plasma, it is the definition of operating leverage. And I think as we add what will be approximately 50% more volume to that business, we have the ability to capture real operating leverage. And you should fully expect that from us going forward when we get on the other side of these transitory costs. With regards to MedSurge, I continue to believe that's the place where we have the opportunity to surprise We talked about the new product launches. Certainly there's costs that come with that, but they were all factored in previously in our annual guidance. So I think as that business scales and comes into its own, that will be the big driver that you see. And I think the combination of both operating segments will contribute to that high 20s aspiration.

Yeah, and it's James on that. The CSL contribution, that's more of a fiscal 28 and beyond for the reasons I talked about earlier in that we are ramping up and I think it's important just to note that the ramp-up costs, we expect those to be transitory and those will be largely eliminated as our operations normalize. There's really two pieces of those. There's the ones that are associated with increasing production, in this case by over 40%. Those costs, once we're through them, again, those should be, or through incurring them, those should be eliminated. The second piece of it is higher performance-based compensation. We pay for performance, and the CSL contract is contributing to this year's outperformance. That incremental expense is also transitory. So next year, the performance baseline will reset. So as we exit FY27, The transitory costs go away. And then once we get into fiscal 28, maybe just a word on economies of scale, as our production normalizes after the ramp up, we can spread our fixed manufacturing costs over much higher volumes. So the real margin expansion opportunity comes from both the elimination of the transitory costs I just spoke about, and then, of course, much better fixed cost absorption as volumes filled.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Petusky with Barrington Research. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Chris, I was just wondering if we just talk a little bit about vascular closure and sort of your competitive response in EP a few quarters ago and It appears that it's worked, but I'm just curious what you feel like has worked, maybe some opportunities still there that you guys haven't fully taken advantage of. I'm just curious about an update on that issue.

Thanks. Thanks, Mike. I think I would characterize it as this. I believe we've laid the groundwork for success. We now need to live into that success. And the first half results are fine. Second quarter was definitely affected by order timing. We've already seen that correct. So we're cautiously optimistic about where we go from here. We talked earlier in this call about PacePro and Percocel Elite. They're important contributors over time. Here and now, MVP and MVP XL carry all the water. And What we're seeing, both on the regulatory approvals in Europe and in Japan, coupled with really leaning in and getting the full benefit of the changes we have made, I still believe there's a three-part equation here, which is a much stabilized market. On the other side of PFA adoption, we see a resumption in growth in the number of access sites. We're clearly benefiting by that. Now, you know, High single-digit growth is kind of the baseline there. We add to that a much stabilized field force. We've fully resourced appropriate quotas, forecasting, targeting, and a team that's got the right tools and the right focus to really be able to deliver there. And I wouldn't take anything away from our competition, but I do believe that the value prop with the additional clinical data, the expanded indications, etc., Our value proposition and the superiority of it with regards to innovative closure has come to the fore and our team's ability to commercialize against that. I think cautiously optimistic, but we're looking for meaningful growth acceleration in the second half of this fiscal year and beyond.

Okay, great. And if I could get a quick one in just I guess around The impact of CSL, the win back there on capital allocation, in particular, I guess I'm asking about the last couple of conference calls, it feels like you have sort of made fairly definitive statements that, look, we're not going to really explore any serious needle-moving M&A during this time. But since then, obviously you get the CSL win. I could see how that actually could cut both ways on potential external growth exploration. and also curious how, you know, the CSL win obviously gives you, you know, a greater amount of flexibility. Does that mean you take deeper dives into sort of R&D innovation type investment? Just curious about capital allocation post this, you know, CSL win and the impact that'll really start to impact 28 and beyond. Thanks.

Yeah, we're excited about the CSL win. We think it speaks volumes to our technology and competitive advantage across plasma. It does not change our capital allocation priorities near or intermediate term. Our highest priority is investing in organic opportunities like CSL. James has walked through this. The device production, the disposable capacity expansion, the distribution readiness, The Expedited Freaks, because all this is occurring at a time where we're experiencing high teens growth in the base plasma business to boot. So there's a lot to focus on there. That is our absolute priority. Yes, the cash flow continues to be incredibly robust. That's not going to back off anytime soon. Gives us the opportunity to strengthen our balance sheet and that creates flexibility. You saw through the first half, we repaid $100 million on our revolver with interest rates where they are. My guess is we'll look opportunistically for more to do there. Obviously, the stocks had a nice move, but as we get traction on our long-term plan and some of that becomes obvious, I wouldn't take repurchases off the table. We still have $325 million remaining on our existing authorization from the board. Capital allocation priorities are really first, second, and third. Deliver on the opportunity right in front of us and make sure the execution is every bit as precise and as professional as it needs to be.

Okay, sounds great. Thanks.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to ask the question, please press star 11 on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Cooper with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Hey, everybody. Thanks for the questions. Maybe just asking one more, if you could give a little bit of kind of sizing or quantitation around the operating margin guide in terms of, you know, what are you seeing that is the performance comp versus the cost pressures that won't necessarily alleviate versus sort of the intentional investments to support the growth in plasma. When we think about that 50 to 100 going to zero to 50, if you could just size some of the moving parts, that'd be great.

Yeah, sure, Andrew. It's James. So I would say, you know, the biggest piece of it is probably, you know, related to, you know, performance-based compensation that, you know, if you're sizing, you know, after that, then it's more, I would say, these elevated production costs and some of the effects that we've seen from the higher price of oil. You know, probably if I had to You know, maybe like a 60-40 type allocation there. But those two headwinds are meaningful to us along with the associated inflation that's out there. But again, as I said earlier, we are expecting the elevated production costs to be transitory. and those will diminish over time, which really sets us up, I think, nicely in FY28 and beyond.

Perfect. And then I'm going to sneak two kind of different questions into one here if I could, but just on plasma volumes, are you seeing any slowdown relative to the Persona Plus Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks Andrew, it's Chris. With regards to Persona Plus, we are really pleased with the actual yield attainment that our existing customers, and we now have the majority of our collection volume,

on Persona Plus here in the U.S. The product is performing at least as well as advertised, maybe a tad above that. And some of our collectors, yes, will take that as an opportunity in the near term to back off. If we're giving them 5% or 6% incremental yield per collection on average, they'll take that and book that to meet their near-term demands. It meaningfully lowers their cost per liter, as we've discussed previously, and That's all very positive. I think others will use it as an opportunity to build inventory and take in market share. But we want to be mindful of it. It's one of several factors that led us not to include collection volume growth in our guidance going forward. So remains to be seen. There's definitely that possibility. If that's the case, and it looks like what we experienced with some collectors in the original persona rollout, as it annualizes, they tend to get back at it and growth resumes accordingly. So we'll watch and see. We think we're protected on the downside there, but certainly a possibility. With regards to blood management, that's a really healthy business. As you know, over the last five years, transfusion management alone delivered mid-teens growth. We leaned heavily on that business when we needed them in the fourth quarter of last year. They took advantage of the have neutralization cartridge and the technology cycle upgrade and they delivered fully for us. We expected a bit of a pullback in first quarter and they powered right through that. What we saw in the second quarter, probably a little bit of a hangover from that push, but as well as some order timing. And so we remain very confident that BMT can continue to be the Thank you for joining us. and amongst that team are going to power that for continued growth. We view that as very sustainable. So a little slow down in the quarter for sure on BMT. We think it's time bound and we're expecting good things from BMT in the second half for sure.

Great. I'll stop there. That's very helpful. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Mattson with Needham. Your line is open.

Yeah, thanks so much. This is Joseph on for Mike. Maybe just a question on TAG. Sounds like TAG is going to be increasingly more of a recurring revenue. Just wondering maybe if you could talk about the margin contribution there, just shifting towards more recurring revenue. And maybe you could talk about the gross margin cadence for the rest of the fiscal year.

Yeah, Joseph, thanks for the question. PEG is an 85-15 split now where disposables, the PEG cartridges themselves, are the 85% of what we do. And in fact, while it's only 15%, some of the capital slowdown from the conversion cycle is what plagued us with a slightly reduced growth rate in the second quarter. One of the things that team has done really powerfully here is, as we've positioned the product more as a site of care device in or immediately adjacent to the operating room or the trauma wards, we're seeing a doubling of the revenue per device. The device themselves is fine, it's a profitable product, but the actual disposable use has more than doubled. and that's a growth trajectory we're going to continue to lean into. We think that's probably the single biggest driver of margin expansion and growth for that product line. So we continue to invest, delighted to have it on a global basis now. So there's important contributions coming from Europe and over time we think Japan as well. It's still predominantly a U.S. market, but we think that when we look at that TAM, Well, in excess of $400 million, we have the lion's share for sure, but our biggest opportunity is to continue to drive utilization. We think there's healthy runway for that product going forward, and yes, it will contribute to our gross margin expansion over time.

Yeah, and on the margin phasing for the rest of the year, I think you asked about the gross margin. I commented earlier about operating margin. and we expect second half margin expansion to be weighted more towards the fourth quarter consistent with our revenue cadence including the contractual economics that Chris spoke about in his remarks. I would say gross margin would follow that type of cadence as well so the two would be consistent.

Okay, great. That makes sense. and then appreciate all the colors you guys have given on CSL but maybe I can try and get one maybe a little bit more qualitative and hopefully you already have detailed this but just in terms of the ramp whether you know framing it as a calendar 2027 or fiscal 2028 do you see the ramp as more of a linear ramp or is maybe one half a much larger ramp cycle than the other?

Again, it remains to be seen exactly how that plays out. Joseph will, for certain, will be done by this time next year. And between here and there, we'll move as fast as CSL is prepared to move, provided we believe collectively we can do so in a seamless fashion. That's been the experience in the early conversions. and we have every intention to make sure that's the case going forward. We want these converted centers to meaningfully step up their performance and their contribution from day one onward and that's a commitment we have between the two companies to make that a reality.

Okay, great. Thanks so much and congrats on a strong quarter. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm showing no further questions in the queue. That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.