Cooper Companies Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

AlphaStreet
Provided by AlphaStreet
March 3, 2022
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Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Cooper Companies' First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operators Instruction]

And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program. Kim Duncan, Vice President, Investor Relations and Risk Management.

Kim Duncan
Vice President of Investor Relations & Risk Management at Cooper Companies

Good afternoon, and welcome to The Cooper Companies' First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. During today's call we will discuss the results and guidance included in the earnings release and then use the remaining time for questions.

Our presenters on today's call are Al White, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Andrews, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements including all revenue and earnings per share guidance and other statements regarding anticipated results of operations, market or regulatory conditions and acquisitions, integration of any acquisitions or their anticipated benefits.

Forward-looking statements depend on assumptions, data or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Events that could cause our actual results and future actions of the company to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements are set forth under the caption Forward-Looking Statements in today's earnings release, and are described in our SEC filings, including Cooper's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings, all of which are available on our website at cooperco.com. Should you have any additional questions, following the call, please call our Investor line at (925) 460-3663 or email ir@cooperco.com.

And now, I'll turn the call over to Al for his opening remarks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Great. Thank you, Kim, and welcome, everyone to Cooper Companies Fiscal First Quarter Conference Call. Before I turn to our business, let me say the escalation of the devastating crisis in Ukraine is top of mind. The events cause great concern for everyone in that region, including our employees, partners and their families. Our thoughts are with everyone who is being affected and we certainly hope piece prevails soon.

Moving to our business, I'm pleased to report a strong start to the fiscal year, led by a fantastic quarter at CooperVision and another solid quarter and CooperSurgical. Within Vision, our daily silicone hydrogel and myopia management portfolios continued posting strong results, leading to share gains around the world. Within surgical, our fertility business posted great numbers and the integration of generate life sciences is going really well with that business off to a fast start as part of Cooper. We also recently announced the pending acquisition of Cook Medical's reproductive health business, which will be a great addition to our Surgical franchise. Regarding first quarter financial results, consolidated revenues were $787 million, with CooperVision at $561 million, up 11%, and CooperSurgical reaching a new all-time high of $226 million, up 30%. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.24.

Moving to the details and reporting all percentages on an organic basis. Our CooperVision growth of 14% was strong and diversified. We grew nicely in all product categories, spheres, torics and multifocals, and all three regions posted great results with the Americas up 8%, EMEA, up 17% in Asia-Pac, up 19%. This resulted a nice share gains and we remain well positioned to capitalize on the reopening of economies around the world as COVID subsides. All of this is driven by our multifaceted commercial strategy that we began deploying years ago which has proven to be extremely successful. This includes a consistent cadence of launching new products and product extensions around the world providing customers with market leading flexibility through our customized solutions, executing on key account relationships and delivering fantastic customer service. We're continuing these efforts, while also enhancing our business through sales force expansions and targeted marketing and infrastructure investments.

Regarding products, our daily silicone hydrogel lenses MyDay and Clariti posted strong results, growing 25%. Daily silicones continue to lead the market and we offer the broadest portfolio of products to meet customers' needs. This includes MyDay, our premium offering, which is available in a sphere, toric and most recently a multifocal. And speaking of the multifocal, the launch is going incredibly well. The feedback from eye care practitioners regarding use of our breakthrough binocular progressive fitting system that simplifies the fit process while providing optimal visual acuity at all levels has been fantastic. And we're continuing to receive feedback from patients that MyDay provides the best multifocal they've ever worn for exceptional near, intermediate and distant vision. This success is having a nice halo effect on our already successful MyDay torics and spheres so we remain very optimistic about this brand.

The other brand in our daily silicone hydrogel portfolio is Clariti. This lens is also available as a sphere, toric and multifocal, and is sold is more of a mass-market product. We've seen nice growth with this brand, especially in our Asia-Pac region where we just posted an extremely strong quarter. For our FRPs, we reported another solid quarter of 10% growth for our very own Biofinity, our silicone hydrogel two-week and monthly lenses. This was led by improved product availability and our unique offerings such as Biofinity toric, multifocal and energys, the most innovative product in the monthly space. To finish on products, we're continuing to see nice strength in torics and multifocals as we expand parameter ranges and increase availability around the world. When you combine this with the success we're having in key accounts, it's resulting in nice share gains and we expect that to continue.

Moving to myopia management, we posted revenues of $20 million, and within this MiSight grew 172%. This growth rate was an acceleration from Q4, which is impressive given the general market challenges around new fits. Overall, as a global leader in the myopia management space, our portfolio is the broadest in the industry, comprised of MiSight, the only FDA-approved myopia control product, our broad range of market-leading Ortho K lenses and our innovative SightGlass Vision glasses. From MiSight, we're continuing to make progress around the world, including in China where we're preparing for a broader launch with our partner Essilor. Our team in China is strong in our advisory Board of key opinion leaders that are affiliated with hospitals representing over 50% of myopia management contact lens volume in China has us positioned for success in a market where childhood myopia rates are estimated to be over 80% and where reducing myopia is a priority for the government.

Last thing I might say, our industry-leading seven-year clinical data has been getting a lot of exposure as it highlights that MiSight works for nearly all myopic children, it cuts myopia progression by roughly 59% on average, it works at any age of child starts treatment, it works for as long as the child wears is it and there is no rebound if treatment is stopped. Moving to SightGlass myopia management glasses, following our co-launch in the Netherlands with Essilor in November, we started early launches in additional markets including the UK and Canada. Within Canada, we've launched the product under the MiSight name, which is an exciting step in combining our myopia management glasses and contact lenses under one brand name. We've also accelerated activity in China and plan to launch the product later this fiscal year. To conclude our myopia management, our momentum is strong and we're still targeting roughly $100 million in sales for this fiscal year.

To wrap up on CooperVision, for calendar Q4, we estimate the global contact lens market grew 10% with CooperVision growing 16%. Within this, COVID related challenges did negatively impact optometry offices around the world and combining this with heightened patient demand as myopia rates continue to rise is resulting in many eye care offices having full calendars of appointments. This demand is great, but it's still impacting fit activities such as in the U.S. where new fits are still roughly 8% below pre-COVID levels. Having said that, progress is being made, and we expect to continue seeing positive trends as COVID subsides and economies around the world reopen with people returning to the office and becoming more active in social settings. Meanwhile, long-term macro growth trends remain intact with roughly one-third of the world being myopic today, and that's expected to increase to 50% by 2050. For CooperVision, we have a robust product portfolio, ongoing product launches, a fast growing myopia management business and our fit data remains strong, so we remain very bullish on our business.

Moving to CooperSurgical, we're extremely busy integrating Generate, which we just closed in mid-December. In the meantime, we had another strong quarter with organic growth of 9%. Before getting into the details, let's cover Generate. We recognized roughly $34 million of revenues in the quarter, as this was a stub period with only roughly 1.5 months of revenue. Of this, $23 million was in stem cell storage and $11 million in fertility. It's tough to get exact growth rates for a stub period, but growth for the business for the full equivalent fiscal quarter was 10%.

Moving to our fertility business, we posted sales of $97 million, up a very healthy 27% when excluding Generate and the small acquisition of Embryo Options from last January. Strength was seen on a global basis and throughout our product portfolio, including from consumables, capital equipment and genomics. Within our office and surgical unit, we posted sales of $129 million, up 24% as reported, but down 3% when excluding Generate and other acquisitions. This was due to the negative impact of COVID on sales of PARAGARD as well as certain surgical products. Having said that, we did see growth in many areas, such as our laparoscopic surgery closure products and our acquired businesses grew nicely especially Fetal Pillow in our labor and delivery area, which grew 160%. Based on current trends, we expect office and surgical sales to improve and show organic growth in Q2.

To wrap up on CooperSurgical, let me touch on some market information. For Fertility, we're largely back to pre-COVID levels. Some markets like the U.S. are stronger, while others outside the U.S. are still dealing with COVID related challenges, but net-net, the market is in a good place. This industry continues to grow nicely and we estimate our addressable market is approaching $2 billion with 5% to 10% long-term annual growth, it's estimated that one in eight couples has trouble getting pregnant due to a variety of factors such as increasing maternal age and that more than 100 million individuals worldwide suffer from infertility. Given the improving access to treatments, increasing patient awareness, greater comfort discussing IVF and increasing global disposable income, we expect this industry to grow nicely for many years to come. Within office and surgical as mentioned earlier, we expect growth to return in Q2 as the market fundamentals are improving.

To summarize, this was a really strong start to our fiscal year. CooperVision posted a great quarter and we're well positioned to continue delivering success with the best team in the industry and the broadest product portfolio in the market. Our Fertility business is growing nicely and taking share and the Generate business is integrating really well with some exciting potential as we incorporate stem cell storage into our labor and delivery product portfolio.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Brian.

Brian G. Andrews
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Cooper Companies

Thank you, Al, and good afternoon, everyone. Most of my commentary will be in a non-GAAP basis. So please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results.

First quarter consolidated revenues were $787 million, up 16% and up 13% organically. Consolidated gross margin decreased year-over-year by 90 basis points to 66.9%, driven primarily by currency, but also lower sales a PARAGARD, partially offset by lower manufacturing costs at CooperVision. Operating expenses grew 19% to 42.3% of revenues with the addition of Generate and higher investment activity. Consolidated operating margins were 24.6%, down from 26.9% last year due to the negative impact of FX and higher investing. In addition, we did see higher freight, secondary handling and distribution cost within cost of goods and opex, and expect this to continue, although price increases are helping to offset the impact.

Interest expense was $6.6 million and higher average debt partially offset by lower interest rates. The effective tax rate was 13.3%, higher, primarily due to the Generate acquisition. Non-GAAP EPS was $3.24 with roughly 49.9 million average shares outstanding. FX negatively impacted us by $0.37 in the quarter, which was $0.02 worse than we forecasted at the time of our last earnings call. Free cash flow was solid at $109 million, comprised of $166 million of operating cash flow, offset by $57 million of capex. Net debt decreased by $1.6 billion to $3 billion, driven by the acquisition of Generate, and our adjusted leverage ratio increased to 2.71 times. During the quarter, we repurchased roughly 192,000 shares of the company's common stock for $78.5 million at an average purchase price of $410.41 per share. That's $410.41. Roughly 256 million remains authorized for repurchase under our program.

Moving to guidance, we've updated our numbers to reflect our outperformance in Q1. The addition of Generate, new currency rates and the assumption of a 25 basis point rate increased by the Fed next week. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this would have meant the midpoint for EPS would have been roughly $14.35, but currency has moved significantly against us over the past week. We are increasing prices to offset the negative impact, and hopefully the currency moves are temporary, but we're taking a conservative approach and fully incorporating negative currency into our guidance, noting that the scope, degree and duration of the crisis on the global economy is an evolving risks.

With this, the new consolidated revenue range is $3.261 billion to $3.329 billion, up 6.5% to 8.5% organically. Within this, CooperVision revenue guidance is $2.221 billion to $2.264 billion, up 7% to 9% organically. CooperSurgical revenues are expected to be between $1 -- I'm sorry $1.04 billion and $1.065 billion, up 35% to 38% as reported, or 5% to 7% organically. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be in the range of $13.70 to $14.20. We estimate interest expense around $42 million which assumes a 25 basis point rate increase remembering that $1 billion of our debt is fixed -- is at fixed rates. We estimate the full year tax rate to be around 14%. Regarding currency, on a year-over-year basis, the negative FX headwind is now roughly 3.5% to revenues, and roughly 10% negative impact to EPS.

Note this guidance does not include our pending Cook Medical Reproductive Health acquisition as the transaction is not yet closed. Regarding Cook, we announced this acquisition on February 7, for $875 million. This is a really nice strategic fit as they manufacture and sell minimally invasive medical devices focused on the fertility and gynecology markets. With this acquisition, we'll be improving our international fertility footprint especially within the Asia-Pac region, and we'll be adding highly synergistic and respected labor and delivery medical devices. From a financial perspective, this business had roughly $158 million in sales in calendar 2021, and we expect long-term growth in the range of 5% to 9%. Additionally, we expect Year 1 non-GAAP EPS accretion of roughly $0.60. For more information, please visit our IR website where there is a presentation.

In summary, we're pleased with this quarter's performance and believe our momentum will continue, driven by strategic investments in both businesses that will support share gains and durable, long-term revenue and earnings growth.

And with that, I'll hand it back to the operator for questions.

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Operator

Certainly. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Mishan from KeyBanc. Your question, please.

Matthew Mishan
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Hi, good afternoon, guys. Just first on the Cook acquisition. I mean, it's a little bit difficult because you guys have been guiding right before closing an acquisition and then having update and we're going have to do the same thing again when Cook was a -- just first, can you give an update on when you think that might close? And then given $0.60 in Year 1, but look, it's probably going to be half and half. How should we phase that first half of Year 1 versus the second half of Year 1?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, no update that we're working through the regulatory approval processes right now, we have, here in the U.S. and then some work councils and stuff in Europe. So, no. No real update on that.

With respect to the $0.60, when we do close that should be pretty stable, if you will. Not a lot of seasonality in that business. So you could almost just say $0.15 a quarter is probably a easy way to look at it. But yeah, we seem to be closing these in the middle of the quarter, which I appreciate. It makes things a little bit more different -- difficult.

Matthew Mishan
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

And then the second question is just on phasing of CooperVision. You really had an excellent quarter in the first quarter. But as I look at my previous history prior to COVID, the second quarter is usually above the first quarter, like seasonally speaking. Is there any reason why that shouldn't be the case this year? And then if that -- if if 2Q is better than 1Q, what would be driving the second half deceleration in the growth?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, that's a good question. I think that Q2, if we look at. CooperVision, is going to end up being fairly similar to Q1, which is different than it usually is because usually Q2 is a little bit stronger. We did see a nice rebound in activity, certainly in Europe and Asia-Pac. We didn't get stocking, it was just a increase in activity. So that was a good sign. We had some good trends. Going the situation with Russia and the Ukraine and how that impacts Europe is a little bit of a question mark right now. And then the impact of currency. I mean we've had a situation here where basically the dollar has strengthened against all currencies across the board. So that's obviously taking a bite out of our earnings and out of our revenue. So we'll see how that plays out, but I think that this quarter will be -- meaning, this quarter meaning fiscal Q2 will be somewhat similar from a revenue perspective, for CooperVision, as Q1.

Matthew Mishan
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

I appreciate the color. Thank you.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Larry Biegelsen from Wells Fargo. Your question, please.

Larry Biegelsen
Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question, and congrats on the strong quarter here. Al, just to follow up on that last question, you grew -- so CVI, it's the same question for CVI and CSI. So 14% organically in Q1. The guide implies 5% to 7% for Q2 to Q4. The same thing for CSI, 9% growth organically, and again Q2 to Q4, it looks like implied about 5% to 7%. So math, Brian will correct me on the math, but obviously it implies a pretty steep deceleration. So FX, that's organic. So I guess my question is, how much are you baking in for Russia and Ukraine, both those businesses, and is there anything else that might be leading to that deceleration?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, so the way I look at it, ends up being more on a comp basis, I mean we're starting to be in a situation here in 2022 where we're comping against a more traditional, if you will, marketplace where we didn't have a lot of those, the COVID swings or the COVID weaker quarter. So when I look at, for instance, the contact lens market and I think about something in that maybe it's 4% to 6% growth kind of range and we're at the high-end of that or should arguably go a little bit above that, but then I do ratcheted back and kind of think a little bit about what's going on around the world with supply chain and trade disruptions and that type of activity and try to incorporate a little bit of that. So, Brian and I were just talking about that. It's tough, tough, tough timing with what's going on obviously, in the world right now to try to incorporate the guidance on that. So I certainly hope that we're being a little conservative on that guidance. But for right now, I think is probably pretty reasonable.

I guess -- in other words there, I mean one kind of takeaway is that I don't want to imply in any way that our business isn't and strong, that there is not great momentum because there was. What we saw in Q1 was continuing in this quarter and we feel pretty optimistic about things across the board, but a little bit more conservative certainly based on what's transpired over the last week.

Larry Biegelsen
Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company

And just for my follow-up, Al, maybe I'll ask about SightGlass. What's the timing on the approval or a launch in China, and then at the U.S., what's your expectation? How do you feel about approval in 2022. Thanks for taking the questions.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Sure, yeah,, on SightGlass in the U.S., I think we're in a situation here where we'll just wait and we'll give the three-year data. So we've been having some conversations with the FDA about approval for that, but we're closing in at a point where we'll get the three-year data in a couple of months to be able to pull that together and submit that to them. So I think I'm still optimistic that we'll get something during 2022, but my guess is, it's probably more towards the latter part.

With respect to China, TBD on the data that you don't have the same regulatory restrictions there that you do here. So it's a matter of working out the agreements with Essilor and lining up a distribution and so forth on that. So I do think that that when happens, but I'll hold back for right now at least on the timing of that one.

Larry Biegelsen
Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company

Thanks, Al.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Johnson from Baird. Your question, please.

Jeff Johnson
Analyst at Robert W. Baird

Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Al, just wanted to go back, so if we're talking sequentially stable CVI revenue in the fiscal Q2 with Q1, you'd be talking probably a little north of double-digit organic growth for CVI in this quarter. Is that, you're a month in, you obviously see what's going on in your numbers that you feel good with that. Just want to make sure I understand that.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

I'm looking at Brian, and now you're talking about...

Brian G. Andrews
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Cooper Companies

Yeah, in Q2, organic growth.

Jeff Johnson
Analyst at Robert W. Baird

Yeah, the way my model works, if I go to $561 million CVI in the second quarter, that's probably right around 10% to 10.5% organic CVI growth, I think, unless my model's screwy.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah. I think you're right.

Brian G. Andrews
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Cooper Companies

Yeah, that's about right.

Jeff Johnson
Analyst at Robert W. Baird

Okay. It wasn't a trick question, I just want to make sure...

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Jeff Johnson
Analyst at Robert W. Baird

My math is right. Okay. We good?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, no, that's right, Jeff, I just -- look, I just pulled this sheet. You're right.

Jeff Johnson
Analyst at Robert W. Baird

Okay. And then just on the MyDay multifocal especially, I mean obviously we've been getting good feedback here in the U.S., but just talk to us maybe where, where is that lens at from a global launch standpoint, where are the tailwinds coming over the next few quarters in that launch and just how to think about MyDay multifocal?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, that's a really good question because that product is doing really well, and as you know, there are some competitive products in the marketplace that have been launched. So we've been really happy with the reception of that. We obviously have it in the U.S. and still launching it. We did launch it in some other of the larger markets around the world. But there's still numerous markets to launch into and we still have to finish launches, if you will, in a number of markets, including rolling out more fitting sets and so forth here in the U.S. So we're going to continue to put up strong MyDay multifocal growth through the year. I would imagine, every earnings call you're gong to have me make a statement of around that based on the momentum that we have right now.

Jeff Johnson
Analyst at Robert W. Baird

Yeah, understood. Thank you.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pasquale from Guggenheim. Your question, please.

Chris Pasquale
Analyst at Guggenheim

Yeah, thanks, guys, congrats on a great start to the year. Al, what's left to do before you transition to the full MiSight launch in China, and how are you thinking about the ramp there?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, so there is a big conference at kind of in the end of March timeframe, into the beginning of April. It's just big optical conference in China. So that's really the target. So the product is available now, we're starting to launch the product, get it into hospitals and so forth, docs are getting their hands on it. Certainly, we've done seminars and other things. The true big launch, if you will, will be at that optical conference. So no delays, no problems, no issues, nothing along those lines. I just think that it will really get rolling towards the end of this fiscal quarter, and then in the back half of our year.

Chris Pasquale
Analyst at Guggenheim

Okay. And then I don't think I heard a PARAGARD's revenue number. Could you just give us how that performed in the quarter?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, it was down 10%?

Brian G. Andrews
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Down 10%, yeah.

Chris Pasquale
Analyst at Guggenheim

Is that just related to some of the issues with getting patients into offices you think, or was there something mechanical around purchasing?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

No, I think it was foot traffic. We'd heard some of that commentary from some of our competitors, and I would agree with that. That's what we've kind of seen because we haven't seen anything else associated with that. Based on current trends here, when I look at just what's going on, how January went and how February is and our expectations, I expect us to be back to posting growth here in Q2 on that one, but I do think that that was due to two things. One was staffing shortages associated with COVID, and then the other was just some reduced foot traffic, if you will, due to Omicron related issues.

Chris Pasquale
Analyst at Guggenheim

Okay. Thanks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jon Block from Stifel. Your question, please.

Jonathan D. Block
Analyst at Stifel Nicolaus

Great. Thanks, guys. Good afternoon. Maybe for CVI to start out, I think to kick off the year, you fiscal year, you were talking about market growth of 4% to 6%. You guys' CVI was going to grow 6% to 8%, now, I believe you've upped that to 7% to 9% for CVI. So just would just love your thoughts on the underlying market. In other words, has that moved up as well or is it just sort of your share gains that have expanded. And when we think about the extra 100 bps for CVI, what do you attribute that to? How much of that is price, and I believe you alluded to that you're taking to help offset some of the FX movements. Thanks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah. So basically, what we did there was, took the 6% to 8% guidance that we had beforehand, we increased it to 7% to 9% to reflect the strong performance in Q1. We didn't really move it outside of just incorporating that. If you look at the numbers, it's almost like you could think out on an as reported basis. We had a nice beat and then currency took the delta away there. So from that perspective, kind of our holding our expectations where they are for Q2 to Q4, even in the face of some of the global uncertainty, if you will. A lot of that came from outperformance in Europe and in Asia-Pac, where we're over-indexed. We're Number 1 in Europe and we have a really strong presence, for example, in Japan. So as we've seen those market start to come back and get closer to where the U.S. is at, we have a tenancy to outperform in those areas. So that's what you saw. I mean, yes, there is a little bit of price, everyone has taken a little bit of price. So that's a little component of it, but I think it was more starting to see global economies, really economies outside of the U.S. start to return to normal. And as they did, and they catch up to the U.S. contact lens market, if you will, we're a greater recipient of that type of positive activity.

Jonathan D. Block
Analyst at Stifel Nicolaus

Got it. Helpful. And second question, I think to an early question you mentioned Coke somewhat linear, if you will, when we think about the accretion of the $.60. What about Generate? I don't know if I missed it, Brian, but is Generate still, call it $0.50 accretive in the first 12 months and then you've got it for I guess roughly like 10.5 this fiscal year. How does that on board, if you would, and any commentary around the pace of the cadence of that or -- from a linear perspective. Thanks, guys.

Brian G. Andrews
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Cooper Companies

Yeah. So you're exactly right. And we're heading towards the roughly $0.44 or so that gets you to that 10.5 months of $0.50 that we guided to. So definitely on track to hit that $0.50, but that's kind of how you get there. And I would say that the gating, if you will, is going to be fairly similar per quarter.

Jonathan D. Block
Analyst at Stifel Nicolaus

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Bednar from Piper Sandler. Your question, please.

Jason Bednar
Analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Al, I wanted to ask a follow-up here on the contact lens pricing topic as well. Just maybe, I'm hoping you can help in interpreting some of the data that's out there. I mean it looks like retail price points are showing something like mid-single digit increases. But I think a chunk of those are probably stemming from increases that are happening at the distributor and the retail level to cover their own higher operating costs. So maybe you can clarify for us, like how you're handling price increases regionally or across the board globally, and should we be thinking about any load in stocking ahead of some of these additional increases that you're planning?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, I don't think there's really been any activity in terms of stocking or anything that I've really seen from our perspective associated with pricing. We are taking price increases, low single-digit kind of price increases, but you're exactly right. It's very difficult to see, because not only do you have the component of of direct price from the manufacturer and list prices, you also have mark-ups associated with distributors or anyone else frankly, along the processes as they look to take price to offset kind of inflationary pressures. Pricing is a little different around the world. There are some countries right now, even if we get to Russia in particular, right, where we're taking much larger price increases to offset currency moves. So it's a little bit all over the place right now, but I would say it's positive. I mean everyone's kind of raising price to just varying degrees and then seeing how that plays through. We've always been a little lower, for instance, if you look at rebate activities, than some of our competitors have been. So that's another factor that you'd have to take into consideration when looking at price.

Jason Bednar
Analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co.

Okay. All right. That's helpful. And maybe just as a follow-up, I know I asked you about this topic last quarter but I'll come back to it again. It does look like you just recently -- you had CMS grant MiSight a Level II code. I know we may still be ways off from seen dedicated reimbursement for MiSight myopia management contact lenses but maybe can you talk about the significance or importance of what this code does for Cooper? Are there competitive advantages that it provides? And then how does this position the company to eventually seek elevated or dedicated payments levels for something like MiSight? Thanks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah. Sure, absolutely. No, we received that code. It's fantastic and it's a relatively specific related code, which is really good news. The ultimate question ends up on that is how much is the reimbursement amount associated with that. And that would be the reason where -- I'm excited about that and I'm optimistic about where things are going and so forth, but I'll temper any enthusiasm until we get to a point where we're seeing what those reimbursement dollar amounts are. But overall a clear positive and a clear step in the right direction, that's for sure.

Jason Bednar
Analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co.

Great. Thank you.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Brackmann from William Blair. Your question, please.

Andrew Brackmann
Analyst at William Blair

Hey, guys. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the questions. Al, maybe I can just get some high level thoughts around sort of MiSight here. I think we're coming up on the two-year anniversary of the launch here in the U.S. So maybe could you just sort of reflect on what was your view about this product in the domestic market, specifically, and maybe how has that view changed one way or the other, over that time? Thanks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, I think the clear learning on this has been, over the last couple of years is, is it takes a little while to get traction. We were more optimistic, certainly early on, that as a physician got, that as an eye care practitioner got the product into their practice, they would start selling it to every pediatric patient who walked into the door. What we saw was they were pretty active right away, and they would choose a patient or two patients, but it wasn't as sticky right upfront as we thought it was going to be. So we've kind of altered some of our attention, some of our focus, if you will, to ensure that we're helping eye care practitioners build up their myopia management practice, because if you really talk to optometrist right now and you dig into what's going on myopia management, so many of them are trying to figure out how to create a myopia management practice. It's something they want to do, they're excited about it, they see the value in it, whether it's Ortho K, whether it's MiSight, it's something they want to do but prescribing to kids and talking to parents and so forth is oftentimes a significant difference from what they're used to doing.

So helping them along that journey is proving to be really, really valuable for building a long-term relationship. But really recognizing that and understanding that and figuring out how to how eye care practitioners build a subset of their business, if you will, has been a big learning for us. And the team has done a really nice job on that. I feel like they pivoted quickly, they're understanding that, they're out there helping physicians and build practices and so forth, but I would say that's our biggest learning is that this takes time. And I was really optimistic it was going to shoot up really, really fast, but it takes time. We're building a lot of traction, we're putting up good numbers, we're getting good growth, all that kind of stuff. It just takes a little bit of time.

Andrew Brackmann
Analyst at William Blair

Great. Appreciate that. And then maybe a follow-up for Brian. Anything more that you can sort of tell us about what you saw related with the sort of inflationary pressures in the quarter, and then how should we be thinking about those factors sort of playing out throughout the year? Thanks guys.

Brian G. Andrews
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Cooper Companies

Yes, sure. Thanks, Andrew. So, yeah, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're definitely seeing inflationary pressures and we're helping to offset some of those with price increases. That was obviously factored into our guidance last time and we factored into our guidance inflationary pressures. This time around. I mean obviously, it's definitely a headwind. We're seeing -- I mentioned also, freight secondary handling, distribution. So whether it's cost of goods or opex, we've got some good guys offsetting that. But certainly if things get worse and there's contagion as a result of the Ukraine crisis and fuel prices continue to increase and there is a knock-on effect and -- that's hard to factor in, but for now, we think we've got a pretty good handle on what we've seen so far and we think we've factored into our guidance.

Andrew Brackmann
Analyst at William Blair

Thanks, guys.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Zach Weiner from Jefferies. Your question, please.

Zachary Weiner
Analyst at Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Hey, thanks for taking the question. Just want to continue on that last one on MiSight retention rates after the first couple of years of the launch. Just, if you'd give any color there. And then additionally, if you could give some color on new fits versus switch fits through the quarter and how that trended and if there is any one particular one that stands out driving those new fits and switch fits. Thanks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Yeah, MiSight retention rates have remained pretty high. So they're still in that 85% to 90% kind of range, which is a really good sign. And part of what's supporting the business or the underlying growth of that business is we don't have a lot of kids dropping out once they get into the product. New fits to switch fits, new fits are continuing to get better. We're seeing better foot traffic in optometry offices, we're seeing improvements in fit activity. That's clearly benefiting ourselves, and frankly the industry, but it's benefiting us a little bit more given a lot of our growth comes from new fit activity. I'm not sure I would highlight anything too particular other than probably daily silicones because we've talked about that in the past. That's a driver of the market. When you're getting new fit activity in patients are coming in, that's where the optometrist has a tenancy to go, is to grab one of the new daily silicone hydrogels in the marketplace. So that's a positive, obviously for the entire industry. You saw it in our daily silicone numbers of 25% growth. So really strong numbers there. We're certainly capturing our our fair share and more of new fit activity when it comes to that space.

Zachary Weiner
Analyst at Jefferies & Company, Inc.

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Marcus from JP Morgan. Your question, please.

Unidentified Participant
at Cooper Companies

Hi, this is actually Lilly on for Robbie. Thanks for taking the question. Just another one on MiSight. Is there any way you can quantify how many physicians you've trained at this point and what percent of the total opportunity that is?

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

We don't know that off the top of my head. I stopped looking at that number because we were training so many people, and then we were trading off as people also, it wasn't just ECP's. So it's a pretty significant number. I think that there is definitely more room here for training in the U.S., but I would probably venture to say the bigger focus has shifted from getting more people trained to deeper relationships with existing accounts and with those who we know should be big accounts. So certainly more focus there.

I think there is still significant opportunity. I really truly believe that the myopia management space is going to be a multi-billion dollar industry and that will include glasses and contact lenses. But there is a massive amount of momentum out there in the optometry space right now talking about myopia management, and I don't see that changing. So it's more about deeper relationships and helping people grow that part of their business than it is getting them trained and up to speed on it.

Unidentified Participant
at Cooper Companies

Got it. That's helpful. And then, you've obviously been pretty active on the M&A front, not just with bigger deals like Cook and Generate but a bunch of even smaller tuck-ins as well. So do you still have an appetite for M&A right now and where does M&A stand on your list of priorities for capital allocation? Thanks so much.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Sure. Yeah, we do acquisitions, we've had a couple of bigger ones. Brian mentioned, we just bought some stock back this last quarter. So we continue to look at the same thing. We invest in our business wherever we can find opportunities that always provides the best return for us. We look at acquisitions if they make sense and we'll by stock back if we think it makes sense. With Cook coming up and closing, we'll focus a little bit more of our energy and attention on paying down debt. We're not going to -- we don't anticipate seeing leverage go even over 3 times. But having said that, we're up a little bit higher than we historically are. So we'll probably have a little bit greater focus in the near term at least of paying down debt and maybe looking at some stock buybacks than another larger acquisition.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And this does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Al White, President and Chief Executive Officer for any further remarks.

Albert G. White
President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director at Cooper Companies

Great. And thank you, everyone. I appreciate everyone's attention for calling in. I know a lot of people have a lot of things going on right now. As we've discussed, we started the year really well here. So we're really excited about where Vision sits today and where Surgical sits. And we've got good momentum, we think that's going to continue. So if anyone has any questions or follow-up, certainly give us a call. Otherwise, we look forward to speaking with everyone on our next earnings call in early June. Thank you, Operator.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Corporate Executives
  • Kim Duncan
    Vice President of Investor Relations & Risk Management
  • Albert G. White
    President, Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Director
  • Brian G. Andrews
    Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer
Analysts

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