Full Transcript: Cooper Companies Q3 2026 Earnings Call
Cooper Companies (NASDAQ:COO) reported third-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company's third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Cooper Companies reported Q3 2026 earnings exceeding expectations, with record free cash flow and solid fertility growth at CooperSurgical, despite proactive U.S. channel inventory reductions which impacted revenue.
The Board concluded a strategic review, deciding to retain CooperSurgical instead of selling, citing temporary valuation disconnects and a commitment to enhancing shareholder value through organic growth and share repurchases.
CooperVision revenue was flat year-over-year at $717 million, with growth in EMEA and Asia Pac offset by inventory reductions in the Americas; strategic investments in sales coverage and marketing are underway to boost future growth.
The MyDay franchise showed strong performance with double-digit growth, while MiSight reported 20% organic growth despite challenges in China; new product launches are planned to expand market presence.
CooperSurgical's revenue grew 3% organically, driven by fertility sector strength, despite macro headwinds; the company anticipates continued fertility market growth supported by favorable demographics and government policies.
Consolidated revenue for the quarter was $1.066 billion, with a gross margin of 66.7% and operating margin of 26.3%. A significant discrete tax benefit was recognized, contributing to a non-GAAP EPS increase of 4% to $1.15.
Q4 guidance includes expected revenue of $1.057 billion to $1.08 billion, with a focus on managing channel inventory and investing in organic growth initiatives, particularly in CooperVision.
Management emphasized the importance of improving sales execution and is expanding the salesforce to enhance market coverage, particularly in the U.S., aiming to align revenue growth more closely with market consumption.
Full Transcript
Tina, Conference Operator
Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q3 2026 Cooper Companies' earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise, as after the speakers' remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again.
Please limit questions to one and one follow-up. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Kim Duncan, Vice President of Investor Relations and Risk Management. Please go ahead.
Kim Duncan, Vice President of Investor Relations and Risk Management
Good afternoon, and welcome to Cooper Companies' third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During today's call we will discuss the results and guidance, the conclusion of the strategic review, and current corporate developments. We will 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. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements, including statements relating to revenue, EPS, cash flow, interest, FX and tax rates, tariffs, and other financial guidance and expectations; also strategic and operational initiatives, market conditions and trends, and product launches and demand. 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 coopercos.com.
Also, as a reminder, the non-GAAP financial information we will provide on this call is provided as a supplement to our GAAP information. We encourage you to consider our results under GAAP as well as non-GAAP and refer to the reconciliations provided in our earnings release, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website under Quarterly Materials. Should you have any additional questions following the call, please email irperco.com, and now I'll turn the call over to Al for his opening remarks.
Al White, President and CEO
Thank you, Ken, and welcome, everyone, to our Q3 earnings call. This quarter included a number of notable developments including earnings exceeding expectations, record free cash flow, solid fertility growth at CooperSurgical, and the favorable completion of a significant tax matter at CooperVision. However, we proactively reduced U.S. channel inventory that weighed on our results and will continue to impact Q4. Importantly, our underlying demand in the U.S. remained healthy throughout the quarter with consumption increasing at a mid-single-digit rate, and we're now positioned to enter fiscal 2027 with a healthier channel and stronger foundation. We're also taking additional steps to strengthen CooperVision revenue performance and I'll speak to these in a moment, but first I want to address the completion of the strategic review which we announced in a separate press release today. Following a comprehensive evaluation of alternatives, the Board has concluded the strategic review.
As part of the process, we conducted a thorough assessment of CooperSurgical, including a potential sale of the business where we received significant interest and engaged with numerous parties. Ultimately, however, the Board unanimously determined that shareholders are better served by continued ownership than by pursuing a transaction at this time. The Board and our advisors believe several temporary factors influenced valuations late in the process, including developments related to a competitive entrant in the non-hormonal IUD market and the impact of our fertility litigation settlement.
These factors contributed to what we believe was a temporary disconnect between CooperSurgical's intrinsic value and the offers received, resulting in proposals that did not adequately reflect the full value and long-term potential of the business. While the formal strategic review has concluded, our commitment to enhancing shareholder value has not changed. We gained valuable insights through the process and will intensify our focus on profitable organic growth and disciplined capital allocation, including share repurchases.
The Board and management will also continue to evaluate opportunities to maximize long-term shareholder value and remain open to strategic alternatives that appropriately recognize the value of our operations. Turning to the quarter, CooperVision reported revenue of $717 million, essentially flat year over year. EMEA and Asia Pac performed largely in line with our expectations, while the results in the Americas reflected CooperVision's U.S. channel inventory reductions.
Moving forward, we see opportunities to strengthen our growth globally through improved execution of our contract wins and product launches. And to support this effort, we're investing in expanded sales coverage, increased customer marketing programs, and enhanced commercial execution capabilities, including AI-driven targeting and analytics tools. These initiatives are already gaining traction in Asia Pac where our new commercial leadership team is fully in place, and in the U.S. where we're actively expanding our salesforce organization. These efforts are driving stronger customer engagement, including within our private label business where new account wins and SKU introductions are expanding our customer footprint and deepening penetration within existing accounts. We're also continuing to invest in our distribution infrastructure, including a new packaging facility in Puerto Rico that will expand direct-to-consumer and direct-to-customer fulfillment capabilities, enhancing service levels and supporting long-term growth.
All these actions are well underway and position us to drive greater revenue growth in fiscal 2027 and beyond. Turning to products, our flagship MyDay franchise continues to perform well, highlighted by double-digit growth in EMEA and double-digit consumption growth in the Americas. This performance was driven by strong customer partnerships, ongoing expansion in high-value categories such as torics and multifocals, growing adoption of our premium MyDay Energys offering, and the successful launch of MyDay MySight.
MyDay Toric delivered another quarter of double-digit growth supported by the industry's broadest daily parameter range and the same market-leading toric design as Biofinity. MyDay Toric maintains a meaningful competitive advantage, offering approximately 30% more prescription options than any other daily toric lens. MyDay Multifocal also delivered another quarter of double-digit growth supported by its advanced optical design and easy-to-fit platform.
With favorable demographic trends and significant room for category expansion, we continue to view multifocals as one of the most attractive growth opportunities in contact lenses, and to build on this we are preparing to launch MyDay Toric Multifocal, extending our leadership in optics, parameter range, and clinical performance. Finally, MyDay Energys delivered another quarter of double-digit growth, reflecting increasing recognition among eye care professionals and wearers of its differentiated combination of premium optics and advanced material technology.
For clariti, performance varied by region, with growth in EMEA offset by softer performance in our other two regions. However, our next-generation clariti Multifocal continues to gain momentum supported by the same proven fitting design as Biofinity and MyDay, and we also recently completed the clariti family launch in Japan and initial customer response has been encouraging. Turning to Biofinity, strength in EMEA and within our market-leading made-to-order portfolio, including toric, multifocals, and extended ranges, was offset by the inventory moves in the U.S., resulting in a flat quarter.
Regarding myopia management, MiSight delivered another strong quarter with 20% organic growth. EMEA and the Americas led performance while softness in China weighed on Asia Pac, although this was partially offset by growing momentum in Japan. Following our MySight launch earlier this year in EMEA, growth was supported by the ongoing launch of MyDay MySight with back-to-school campaigns highlighting the benefits of a silicone hydrogel offering. Canada also launched MyDay MySight in August and customer feedback has been excellent.
Importantly, in these markets that have MyDay MySight, the MyDay platform now supports patients across every stage of life from myopia management in children through spherical, toric, multifocal, and premium lifestyle offerings in adulthood. Looking ahead, we expect MiSight growth to be in the low teens in Q4 against a difficult prior-year comparison, resulting in roughly 20% growth for this full year and setting the stage for a promising 2027 supported by continued momentum in existing markets and the upcoming launch of MyDay MySight Toric.
Lastly on Vision, we're accelerating programs tied to new product development, and that ties nicely in with the opening of our Global Vision Center in the UK later this month. This state-of-the-art facility brings together R&D, our next-gen technical manufacturing teams, and our commercial teams in a single integrated environment. The investment will accelerate innovation, enhance collaboration, and enable greater speed to market as we capitalize on one standardized manufacturing platform for all future product development.
Turning to CooperSurgical, revenue was $349 million, up 3% organically. Within this, fertility delivered another solid quarter, growing 5% to $141 million. By product category, fertility growth was driven by broad-based strength across our leading global portfolio of products and services, partially offset by softer capital equipment sales following a very strong prior quarter. Genomics was a notable contributor driven by robust global demand along with continued adoption of Witness, our automated laboratory management platform.
Performance was further supported by new clinic wins, expansion within existing accounts, and increasing uptake of recently launched products and services, all resulting in continued global market share gains. Geographically, growth was led by the Americas where we continued to gain share, while EMEA and Asia Pac remained mixed as strength across several markets was offset by macro headwinds in the Middle East and China. Stepping back, the long-term fundamentals of the global fertility market remain compelling.
Delayed family formation, expanding access to care, increasing treatment utilization, and continued investments by fertility clinics support durable long-term growth. Government support for family building also remains favorable. Earlier this year, Denmark expanded publicly funded fertility coverage from three cycles to six. Japan's reimbursement framework continues to improve access and affordability for assisted reproductive technologies. In the Middle East, investments in reproductive healthcare infrastructure continue to support growth in the UAE fertility market, and in California, large group health plans are now required to provide coverage for IVF and certain infertility treatments, representing another meaningful step towards expanding patient access. To conclude on fertility, we expect continued strength including a solid fourth quarter supported by healthy market trends and growing momentum across our innovation pipeline, particularly in genomics. Turning to Office and Surgical, revenue was $208 million, up 2%. Medical devices grew 4% driven by continued strength in our surgical, OB/GYN, and specialty device portfolios, while Paragard revenue was flat.
Finally, CooperSurgical delivered another quarter of strong operating leverage, reflecting the improved profitability and cash generation of our streamlined business model. Now, before turning the call over to Brian, let me leave you with a few key takeaways. At CooperVision, underlying demand remains healthy and our long-term growth drivers remain firmly in place, including continued momentum in MyDay, strong demand for our toric and multifocal lenses, and the ongoing success of MiSight.
At CooperSurgical, we remain excited about the fertility market and the opportunities ahead, supported by our strong R&D pipeline. Finally, while the strategic review process was extremely challenging for our teams, it provided valuable insights and we believe we are well positioned to execute our plans and deliver strong performance in 2027 and beyond. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.
Brian Andrews, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Al, and good afternoon, everyone. Most of my commentary will be on a non-GAAP basis, so please refer to today's earnings release for a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP. Results for the third fiscal quarter, consolidated revenue was $1.066 billion, increasing approximately 1% on both a reported and organic basis. Gross margin was 66.7%, down 60 basis points year over year. This was largely in line with our expectations, reflecting higher costs and foreign exchange headwinds.
Operating margins increased 30 basis points year over year to 26.3%, driven by ongoing productivity improvements. Interest expense was $21.5 million and our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 15.3%. Before moving to earnings, I want to spend a moment on taxes. During the quarter, we recognized a sizable discrete tax benefit of approximately $307 million following the favorable completion of HMRC's examination of our fiscal 2021 transfer of intellectual property and related assets to the UK.
Importantly, the closure of the examination provides clarity and certainty around a matter that has been under review for several years and is now expected to extend meaningful non-GAAP tax benefits for at least an additional 10 years. Turning to earnings, non-GAAP EPS increased 4% to $1.15, including approximately $0.03 from tariff refunds, based on approximately 193 million diluted shares outstanding. This marks our 11th consecutive quarter exceeding consensus earnings expectations, reflecting disciplined execution, strong operational management, and the benefits of the reorganization completed in the fourth quarter of last year.
Turning to cash flow, we generated free cash flow of $273 million, the highest quarterly free cash flow in Cooper's history. This was driven by strong operating performance, improving working capital trends, and declining capex, all of which has contributed to year-to-date free cash flow of $528 million, up 86% from last year. This performance reinforces our confidence in achieving our goal of generating $2.2 billion of cumulative free cash flow in fiscal 2026 to 2028.
Supported by this strong cash generation, we repurchased $339 million of shares during the quarter, bringing fiscal year-to-date repurchases to $445 million while maintaining leverage below two times. Given our confidence in the business and commitment to capital returns, the board approved a $1 billion increase to our share repurchase authorization, bringing the remaining capacity to approximately $1.5 billion for future repurchases. Turning to guidance for Q4, we expect consolidated revenue of $1.057 billion to $1.08 billion, representing organic growth of 0 to 2%.
We expect CooperVision revenue of $692 million to $706 million, down 2% to flat organically. Within this we expect regional performance trends to be broadly consistent with Q3, with the Americas reflecting the impact of channel inventory actions, EMEA delivering another solid quarter, and Asia PAC continuing to face near-term challenges. We expect CooperSurgical revenue of $364 million to $374 million, representing organic growth of 4 to 6%. We expect interest expense of roughly $25 million, reflecting incremental borrowing associated with share repurchases and litigation-related payments.
We expect the Q4 non-GAAP effective tax rate to be roughly 16%, resulting in non-GAAP EPS of $1.05 to $1.09. We expect around $170 million of free cash flow excluding litigation-related payments of roughly $272 million. Our foreign exchange assumptions are largely unchanged from last quarter. In summary, we expect Q4 to be broadly similar to Q3, with the primary differences being greater commercial investments in CooperVision, additional FX headwinds, and lower tariff refunds, which will pressure gross and operating margins.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, it's too early to provide guidance other than to note that our scheduled GILTI increase of roughly 2% in the U.S. taxation of foreign earnings will impact our non-GAAP effective tax rate. All else being equal, we expect this to increase our tax rate from roughly 15.5% this year to roughly 17.5% in fiscal 2027. To conclude, despite actions we took within CooperVision that weighed on performance, we delivered another quarter of earnings above expectations and record free cash flow.
We also achieved a favorable resolution of HMRC's examination of our 2021 UK tax planning initiative and returned significant capital to shareholders. At the same time, we are intensifying our efforts to drive organic growth through new commercial investments and a more streamlined operating model. Together, these initiatives position us to accelerate growth, expand profitability, and increase cash generation in the years ahead. Supported by a strong balance sheet and disciplined capital allocation framework, we remain confident in our ability to create meaningful long-term value for shareholders.
With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for questions.
Tina, Conference Operator
At this time, to ask a question, simply press star-one on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from the line of John Block.
John Block, Analyst at Stifel
Thanks. Thanks, guys. Good afternoon. So Al, previously the fiscal 2H ’26 CVI growth was expected to be up roughly 4%. Now fiscal 2H is expected to be flattish and you made some comments around consumption. I just want to be clear, is the entirety of that revision inventory related? As you did pull out consumption and mid single digit growth specific to the quarter? I'm just wondering if that consumption assumption also applies to fiscal 4Q. So maybe you can just tease out the plus 4 to 0 in fiscal 2H.
How much of that is destock versus underlying fundamentals?
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah, John, it's all destock. So the consumption in the U.S. market here has been running pretty steady all year in the mid single digits. It did in Q3 and it did in the first month of this quarter. So I would expect consumption to remain as is, meaning the entire reason for the reduction in the revenue guidance for CooperVision was tied to just channel inventory. That's it. Okay, so thanks for the clarity there. I guess there's just an obvious follow up which would be if you're exiting this year at flat off of pretty modest comps, just any high level thoughts on 2027 CVI?
In other words, do we think it can go back to mid single digits as it would revert back to consumption? Or should we think hey, you're going to be below market this year? Do we think below market next year really until some new products start to come out of the innovation hub. Thanks, guys. Yeah, a couple things on that. I mean some of the moves that we're making that you see here in the U.S. with respect to the channel inventory are one that's impacting us, another one that's impacting us, has been for a little bit and will to end this year, is some of the portfolio rationalization we're doing with our legacy hydrogels.
Our legacy hydrogels were down double digit across the board. As we continue to kind of move away from those products, that work, we're going to get completed here in our fiscal Q4 and that'll put us in significantly better footing back to kind of CooperVision of old or normal CooperVision, if you will, as we get into 2027.
John Block, Analyst at Stifel
Thank you.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from the line of Jeff Johnson. Please go ahead.
Jeff Johnson, Analyst at Baird
Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Let me just stick on maybe that same line of question John was just asking, and then I've got one other follow up as well, but on the destock itself. Al, you may have just answered the question on some of the legacy hydrogel stuff, but what is actually driving that destock and how do we think about, you know, the risk that that bleeds over into the early part of ’27? Have you ring-fenced that, you know, fairly confidently that this is a fiscal Q4 should be the last of it, or how do we think about like the early ’27 potential impact?
And then one follow up. Thanks.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah, we have ring-fenced that, so to speak. We have gone through that deeply and dug into all the details and where the channel inventory is and what's happening. A lot of it was tied to Biofinity, but there was other, there was stuff with dailies and there was definitely, definitely inventory that was tied to some legacy hydrogels and some of those kind of products. But we're going to get that behind us here in Q4, at least the vast majority of it.
Same with the rationalization and the moves in Asia PAC, so that we get back in good footing and get back to normal, if you will, in 2027.
Jeff Johnson, Analyst at Baird
Okay, I guess I'll just push you a little bit on that. Just, you know, I hear by hearing your answer there the different lines that destocked, but why are they destocking? Has end market slowed? Did you guys have too much inventory in the channel from past efforts to kind of prop up numbers? Is it, you know, competitive new product launches that are just requiring less CooperVision inventory? Just anything there? And then you mentioned APAC there at the end of your answer.
I guess my other question was going to be on APAC, last quarter you talked about, you know, fiscal Q3 being the last of the Cooper specific issues there and you felt like the market was kind of flat, maybe down a little bit in Asia PAC and that you could get back towards that market rate in Q4. Has that assign now changed? And if so, maybe why? Thank you.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah, I'll touch that one first, Jeff. So on Asia PAC, I would say that market's actually stabilizing to getting a little bit better, which is great news. I think I said last quarter, I'd have to go back and look, that we were finishing up a lot of the rationalization work and positioning work and so forth with respect to the legacy hydrogels and clariti. So that's what I'm kind of referencing, saying that similar to last quarter, we're going to finish that up.
We were probably halfway through it, or maybe a little bit more. We took another chunk out of it here in Q3 and we'll finish that in Q4. So I think you'll get Asia PAC being back to relatively back to normal as we start the year off. If I look at the channel inventory in the U.S., we see channel inventory kind of go up and go down, and we've seen that many times over the years. We did have channel inventory trend higher here and that's been for a couple different reasons.
Some of it was people buying before price increases, some of it's been consolidation activity, some of it's been buying before things like IT upgrades go in. Most recently here in like Q1 and Q2, you saw channel inventory move up associated with buying tied to some of the new private label contracts we won. And that was pushing up inventory without offsetting it in a different spot. So this was something that, you know, we took a long and hard look at and said, hey, normally what would happen here, and what's happened in the past, is that channel inventory would burn itself off over the next, you know, year and a half or something like that, and you'd move back to normal. And rather than doing that and dealing with that, as we have many times over the 20-plus years I've been here, we decided to go ahead and proactively accelerate that and just get that taken care of right now in Q3 and Q4 so that we won't have that overhang at all next year and we'll go back to growth tied to consumption.
Jeff Johnson, Analyst at Baird
Thank you.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from Larry Biegelsen. Please go ahead.
Lei, Analyst at Wells Fargo, on behalf of Larry Biegelsen
Hi, it's Lei on for Larry. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you quantify the impact of the U.S. inventory reduction in fiscal Q3? I mean you talked about consumption being in the mid single digit. So is that different versus what you reported for CVI? Is that the magnitude of inventory reduction in the quarter, and what's assumed about the impact of the inventory in fiscal Q4? And I have a follow-up.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah. So, Lei, yeah, just to be clear on that, the Americas would have reported growth around 5% in Q3 if we hadn't made the inventory reduction moves we would envision. Q4 is actually going to be pretty similar to what Q3 was, I would say for the Americas, for EMEA and Asia Pac. So you'll have a similar inventory reduction that will occur in Q4 in the U.S.
Lei, Analyst at Wells Fargo, on behalf of Larry Biegelsen
Okay, so the magnitude should be similar, you're saying, for the inventory reduction in Q4.
Al White, President and CEO
That's right.
Lei, Analyst at Wells Fargo, on behalf of Larry Biegelsen
Okay, thanks. And then my other question is around the P&L for Q4. So I'm backing into an operating margin somewhere in the mid-20% just based on your EPS guidance. That would be down sequentially as well as year over year. So one, just want to check that. And two, what's driving that lower margin? I mean you have a tariff benefit in fiscal Q3. Is it all inventory related or are there other factors in there? And if there's anything in your EPS guide about additional buyback in fiscal Q4.
Thank you.
Al White, President and CEO
Sure. So nothing in the guidance with respect to buybacks, answer that one. When you look at your operating margin, thinking you're in the ballpark. Brian kind of touched on it. The factors being tariffs, being FX is a little bit more negative, and then and investments in Cooper Surgical. So we have started that investment activity in Cooper Surgical. We started it during Q3 actually. So we're starting to see the impact of that now. We'll get a return on that of course next year.
But you're starting to see the impact this year.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Jason Bednar. Please go ahead.
Jason Bednar, Analyst
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Sorry to hammer here, beat a dead horse, but I'm going to ask another one on the destock. Just a question on your confidence that this is just an Americas issue that won't bleed over to EMEA and maybe talk about how Americas is benchmarked versus EMEA. So we can have confidence that this issue just doesn't extend over to that geography and visibility that you have into the channel there. And maybe, why not maybe take it from a different perspective.
Why not make some moves in EMEA so that channel or that geography is on healthy footing heading into fiscal 27.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah. So the difference is EMEA is a much greater subscription-based market. We're actually seeing the U.S. move in that direction. That's one of the things I was talking about with the new Puerto Rico facility is that you're seeing more, more direct-to-consumer shipping activity. You see that in EMEA right now. That kind of prevents you from having these big inventory swings and so forth. So we just don't really see that in EMEA. I mean, you can get it with customers and so forth, of course, right, but we just don't have that happening in EMEA, so I'm not worried about it in that region.
When you look at the U.S., it's centered on a relatively small number of players, if you will, between distributors and some online e-commerce. So it's pretty easy to straightforward tackle it. And that's what we did. And it's pretty easy to get an understanding about how much channel inventory is out there, what levels people need to hold in order to maintain customer service requirements and so forth. And you can look at that delta, and that's how you ring-fence it, so to speak, to be able to say, hey, I can do this and I can quantify it within a couple quarter periods.
Jason Bednar, Analyst
All right, that's helpful. And then Al or Brian, I think you both discussed today investments in CPI, sales, marketing and R&D. Usually that type of approach that's needed to accelerate growth comes at the expense of margins, even if temporarily. But it doesn't seem like that's what you're suggesting today. So can you talk a bit more about the investment buckets and then your confidence level in posting margin improvement next year in the face of this spending, knowing that we've already gone through some cost-down efforts coming into this fiscal year?
Brian Andrews, Chief Financial Officer
Sure, I'll take that one. Yeah. So the commercial investments in sales force expansion, you know, marketing programs, new product development, those, you know, the sales force adds, you know, tend to be a short-term detriment to margins. You know, as we bring in those sales force, train them up, get them deployed, you know, that'll, you know, that'll be a short-term detriment, you know, for longer-term benefits. So we are addressing sales force expansion across our businesses, across regions.
So I'm not going to get into 2027 guidance right now. Obviously we've been leveraging parts of the P&L and we continue to leverage that and you see that drop through in profitability and earnings. But in terms of next year, we'll get into next year in December in terms of how that's going to impact, how the moves to drive long-term sustainable organic growth will impact our year including gating in December.
Jason Bednar, Analyst
Understood, thank you.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from the line of Robby Marcus. Please go ahead.
Robby Marcus, Analyst
Oh great. Thanks for taking the question, two from me. One, when did you first start the destocking and where are you now with channel inventory? I don't know if you measure in days in the U.S. Where was it in the beginning of the year? And where was it last year? Just so we could get a sense. And then I have a follow up.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah. So I would say, well, I don't want to go kind of back and like build out by quarter. I don't think that's going to do anybody any good. But I look at it and say that we're—I would say halfway through it. We did it here in Q3 and we're going to do the other half of it in Q4.
Robby Marcus, Analyst
But you're not willing to say if this year ran at above average or below average.
Al White, President and CEO
Well, this year ran above—has run above average, as I mentioned. Like there was stocking associated with some of the new private label contracts we've won as an example that has pushed up distributor inventory that we saw in Q1 and Q2 as an example.
Robby Marcus, Analyst
And then I know you're not giving 27 guidance. I think we're all grappling with so much of the movement and changes in guidance throughout the past several quarters. But maybe are you okay with leveraged EPS growth next year and maybe like a 3 to 4% top line still a touch lower than where the Street is? Or does the step-up in tax preclude the ability to get leveraged EPS growth? Thanks a lot.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah, as much as I'd like to give commentary on next year, I'm just not going to get into it right now. Not until December.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from Joanne Winch. Please go ahead.
Joanne Winch, Analyst
Thank you so much for taking the question. And I'm going to try it from a different angle. If the third quarter and the fourth quarter are negatively being impacted by the channel inventory and the contact lens market is growing 4 to 6%, is it reasonable to assume that next year you can grow within the range of the market?
Al White, President and CEO
Yes, that is reasonable. I would say a couple of things. Joanne, let me give just a little color on that because your question is very fair. Like we don't have a manufacturing issue. Our team is strong. We're producing product. We don't have a distribution or logistics issue. We don't have a problem winning contracts. We've won a number of contracts. Where we've struggled is execution. At the end of that is actually executing and delivering revenues.
And so it's kind of like we're moving through this entire process which is one of the things that's kept me optimistic. But then we're not converting at the very last stage of that. That actual commercial execution is where the struggling has happened. So this sales force execution, this additional marketing, the intensity around that kind of stuff and targeting and so forth is the key to success for us, right. It's not product, it's not getting customer products, it's not winning contracts, it's executing at the end.
On the sales, we don't have enough salespeople out there. Like, hindsight's 20/20. We should have moved faster on this. Like, we don't have enough salespeople on the street. We have quite a bit less than our competitors have out there right now. So this is a matter of doing that last stage of investing and we're on top of that. We're moving as fast as we can right now on that. I'm not expecting this channel inventory to bounce back. We're taking it out and we're going to manage it more aggressively to ensure stability there.
But I do expect better execution. We have a long history of strong execution. So I'm confident in the team and that we'll deliver that.
Tina, Conference Operator
Thank you. Your next question is from the line of Steve Lichman. Please go ahead.
Steve Lichman, Analyst
Thank you. I just want to switch gears to CSI, and on the decision to keep the business, you pointed to the valuation disconnect. But as you look at the two businesses together coming off of this process, what was management and the board's ultimate assessment of why the two together are stronger than apart? Because obviously the lack of obvious synergies has been one of the questions from investors.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah, well, I would say that it's really the P&L at the end of the day, because if you take a look at the shared services concept that we deployed, remember we did the restructuring in Q4 of last year, and you've seen the savings. I mean, I know there's frustration over revenues, I have frustration over revenues, but I think this was something like our 11th straight quarter of beating earnings expectations. And some of those quarters, we beat earnings expectations by 5, 10%.
I mean, we beat earnings this quarter with CooperVision coming in way under what revenue expectations were. So the strength of the P&L, when I look at it from a perspective of operating leverage and being able to drive that and drive cash flow—highest quarterly cash flow we've ever had in the company. And as Brian said, we're going to keep delivering a lot of cash flow at the end of the day. Yeah, you're right. We have two different businesses, but the back office, when it comes to finance IT, legal, HR and so forth, can support very effectively both of these businesses so that we can generate good earnings and really strong cash flow.
And then we need to deploy that cash flow to stock buybacks. And we did a lot of buybacks this quarter. We're going to generate a lot of cash next year and that's going to continue to be our focus. So that's where the logic comes in of having the two companies together and proof is in the pudding, which we've done. Now we need to get revenue growth going. And I get that within Vision Surgical is actually plugging along fine even through all these disruptions.
I mean this was an incredibly disruptive process. Like we thought we were going to sell Cooper Surgical. Let's be clear about that. Like I got on the last call and I talked about that. So everybody at this company was working on their normal jobs and on the sale of the business. Every piece of planning that we were doing, every budgeting, every IT plan had to go and have a with and without each of them and so forth. But we got through that. We got through the exercise and we still delivered the earnings and we killed the free cash flow.
And now we turn our attention back to where it needs to be, which is driving revenue growth within CooperVision and investing heavier in CooperVision. And that's what we're going to do next. So it's one more box we need to check and I think that's the last one that we need to check. But that's the logic of having the businesses together.
Steve Lichman, Analyst
Got it. Great. And then just follow up to that, in terms of use of free cash looking forward beyond stock buybacks—you may have mentioned this in your release tonight—but is it fair to say that relative to inorganic, that Vision is going to be a higher focus now than this on CSI?
Al White, President and CEO
All sequel 100%. Yeah. The very heavy focus right now on CooperVision organic growth. That's where we, that's where we need to put our attention. That's where we are putting our attention and that's where we're putting our money. That doesn't mean that CooperSurgical is not going to do well and get its investments because fertility is very important to us and we're strong on the med device side and we're going to continue to invest and grow those businesses.
But the number one focus, clear in a way, is driving organic growth at CooperVision right now.
UNKNOWN Analyst
Got it. Thanks.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from the line of David Saxon. Please go ahead.
David Saxon, Analyst
Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Good afternoon. Maybe one on CVI, and I'll ask one on CSI as my second. So just on CVI, you know, a follow-up to the sales and marketing investments: are there specific regions that need those additional resources? Do you need those additional sales reps to get to the mid-single digits next year? And then would love to just get your latest take on pricing and how the markets—how you're feeling about the market's ability to take price?
Al White, President and CEO
Sure. So when it comes to the salesforce expansion, I would start that with the U.S. market because right now we've got consumption growing mid-single digits. That's probably in line roughly with where the market is. We should be doing better than that given the contracts we've won and so forth. We should be growing faster than market here. The addition of this direct sales force and the expansion that we're doing right now is going to add coverage for something like 5,000 additional doors.
So that's a big deal for us. Do we need to get that sales force in place to get to mid-single digit? No, because that's what we're doing right now on a look-through basis. Should we be accelerating that, doing better? Yes, we should be. When I look at Europe, they're in a good spot. I challenged the European team there. We have a great, fantastic leader running Europe over there, and I've challenged him to maybe look at some expansion and hiring some more salespeople.
Asia-Pac is in pretty good shape right now. I just talked to the head of Japan—great guy, energized. He's got some really good ideas. I'm excited about what he's doing. He's doing some hiring over there to focus in some different areas of the markets where we don't currently compete, and he needs to keep doing that. I stressed that to him and the rest of the team: invest, drive growth. These are all high-return models. We are going through this from a return perspective.
I feel good about that. So anyway, that gives you a little bit of color on the worldwide side. Pricing, I would say when I look at pricing and when I look at product mix, it's still pretty good. In the industry, the higher-priced products are doing better. We see that with our competitors. We see that with products like MyDay, MiSight. The MyDay torics and multifocals and so forth continue to perform better. So higher-priced products doing better, and there still remains the potential to take price.
Inflation is still out there—we see that—and there's still the potential for us to be able to take price, and we're actively looking at that right now.
David Saxon, Analyst
Okay, great, thanks for that, Al. And then on CSI, maybe just talk about what you're seeing in terms of cycle trends, what the outlook is going into fiscal 27. And then you mentioned Paragard competition in the release, so would love just an update there. I think that competitive launch was in August, so curious if you're seeing any impact there. Thanks so much.
Al White, President and CEO
Sure. On the fertility side of things, we are seeing growth in cycles, and that's a positive. The other thing we're seeing is we're hurtling through that year period where we have some consolidation, and you're starting to see fertility clinics investing more. There's more capital equipment opportunities out there. Our genomics team is absolutely killing it. They're doing a great job taking a whole bunch of market share. We have somewhat of a new fertility team that started probably 6 to 12 months ago that is really doing that.
Our new leader, she's just fantastic, and she's doing a great job and killing it. So I'm super optimistic about the fertility market. Anybody who thinks that that's not a good market or that that litigation settlement is going to disrupt our momentum and progress is just wrong. I just don't see that in the market. When you look at the Paragard competition, we've talked about that in the past. Paragard is the only non-hormonal IUD in the market right now.
There is a competitive product that received approval, that was bought, that it closed during this past quarter for us. They started their training, and that product will get launched at some point in the future, and there's concern about that. At this point in time I'm going to hold off giving any guidance or commentary above and beyond what we've already given. But we'll certainly have a lot more color to be able to give on the December call.
David Saxon, Analyst
Great, thank you.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Navanti. Please go ahead.
Nirvana, Analyst
Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Just on the CSI post-strategic review, you mentioned some insight from that review. So can you maybe discuss that in more detail and the levers that you mentioned, including investment that you started in the quarter to drive fertility growth? If you could give more details. Thank you.
Al White, President and CEO
Nirvana, it was a little difficult to hear. I think you were asking for the impact of—or did you say the impact from the strategic review tied to CSI? Can you repeat your question?
Nirvana, Analyst
Yeah, I think Al mentioned that you gained some insight from the strategic review and also mentioned some investment that you started in the quarter to drive fertility growth. If you could discuss that in more detail.
Al White, President and CEO
Sure. So the insights is an important one, because one of the things that the strategic review did was to really drill down into the profitability of our portfolio—all aspects of our portfolio, frankly—and take a look at profitability by product and take a look at profitability by geography and relationship. One of the areas where we've seen significant improvement is the profitability of CooperSurgical. And what it did is it kind of highlighted other areas where there's some opportunity for us to do a better job in terms of driving ongoing profitability improvement.
So we're going to learn from that. We learned a lot from the strategic review. It uncovered some different things, and it's going to make us a better company. It is making us a better company today. Right now we are doing investments within fertility. We've added some investment activity, including within R&D. We have a great new head of R&D who's running that organization and pulling forward some launches. We've got some exciting stuff going in genomics there with some new launches and some expanded products that we have.
So I would say we're continuing. That's where we're putting dollars. Number one, first and foremost, is CooperVision organic growth. And number two after that is fertility, where we are continuing to invest, and we believe that those investments are going to drive good fertility growth. And we also believe that some of the stuff that we've uncovered in the insights is going to give us opportunity to continue to drive leverage in that business.
Nirvana, Analyst
Thank you. And you also mentioned in the press release the valuation impact of the fertility settlement. Is that fully settled, or is there anything else we should know about?
Al White, President and CEO
That is fully settled. So there's nothing new on that. You'll remember that was from an issue we had in 2023. There was a concern that that settlement would negatively impact our ongoing sales, not our operations. We haven't had any issues since then associated with media and so forth. So I just don't believe that's accurate. We haven't seen that. We didn't see it in Q2, we didn't see it in Q3. We're certainly not seeing it as we get rolling here in Q4.
But I appreciate whether that was a true concern or negotiating tactics—hard to tell.
Nirvana, Analyst
Thank you.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from the line of Anthony Petrone. Please go ahead.
Brad Bowers, Analyst (for Anthony Petrone)
Hey there. You have Brad Bowers on for Anthony. Just maybe wanted to ask one about the overall strategy or dynamics underlying the CVI business. Obviously slowdown in growth is not unique to Cooper but still growing below growth. We got into destocking dynamics, but obviously you had also taken some share in some of the wider SKU ranges and some of the new products with the MyDay. It sounds like the Americas growth is strong, but you even admit you wish you were growing better.
So I wanted to hear about some of the more competitive dynamics and the confidence that those remain in your favor.
Al White, President and CEO
I would say that those remain in our favor. So nothing has changed with respect to that. I will say that the area where—losing share is the wrong word—but where we don't operate is kind of in this super-premium segment. There's a part of the market, especially on the daily side, that we refer to as super-premium. It's really high-priced products, and that's just not an area that we compete in right now. And that's shown a lot of growth and it has very high revenue per patient.
So where we continue to do well, we continue to win patients. Our revenue per patient is not close to where some of our competitors are. And a lot of the market continues to get driven by that really premium segment. Now, we are launching—we've launched MyDay MiSight into that more premium segment. That's what's being launched into Europe. So I think there's some potential for us to gain some ground there. But if I had to highlight two things, that would be one of them—not having products in the super-premium space.
And then the other one would be the desire to rationalize some of our legacy hydrogel products. Again, we're definitely seeing the negative impact from that.
Brad Bowers, Analyst (for Anthony Petrone)
Sure, Darren, that makes sense. But obviously punching above your weight given the underinvestment—not underinvestment, but smaller sales force than competition—obviously that is a tailwind. But just wanted to hear maybe remind us how productivity kind of ramps there. Obviously the base is now lower, so it does kind of imply getting back towards that mid- to even high-single digits—to your point, getting above consumption. And then also just yen impact obviously apparent.
Maybe the opportunity that that would be obscured if there is strong growth in the U.S. by some of the OUS impacts. Just maybe help us figure that out as well. Thank you.
Al White, President and CEO
Just one quick point because Brian just said I meant MyDay Energys. I think I said MyDay MiSight. But MyDay Energys is the premium product. With the salesforce, I would say if I had to put some parameters around that: we're recruiting now. We'll get people trained and have them out on the street executing, I would say probably in early to mid fiscal Q2. So from that perspective, right, they need to visit offices and start doing their jobs and so forth and pulling revenues in.
So that's probably a positive impact more in the Q3–Q4 time frame. Now I do think early in the year we'll continue to have consumption be solid. So we'll still put up good results. But I believe we'll accelerate a little bit off that as we get the benefit from those employees. Frankly, same thing when I look at some of the other markets around the world.
Tina, Conference Operator
Your next question is from the line of Brett Fishbin. Please go ahead.
Brett Fishbin, Analyst
Hey guys, thank you so much for taking the questions. I have to say a lot of mine have been asked. So maybe just a follow-up on the last point. I was going to ask about your thoughts on underlying market share dynamics. Just given the full-year CVI growth guide for the Americas, it sounds like a lot of it has to do with sales force and you're looking at some incremental investment activity. So maybe just the first part: Is there anything else that stands out that you think might be driving, call it, full-year growth in the Americas below market outside of that?
And then the second follow-up question is just how you're feeling about the product portfolio. I think your point about super-premium lenses is really interesting. So just curious how you feel about current offerings and maybe how active the R&D pipeline might be in regards to some new ideas or even new brands. Thank you so much.
Al White, President and CEO
Sure. I would say on the selling side, I would go back to sales execution. We've won some great private label contracts here in the U.S. with a few of the buying groups. We've won some really nice contracts in Asia Pac. Historically, when we win those contracts we would see the sales execution turn those into revenue growth, and that's what we've expected more of. You've seen that in some of the guidance. You've seen it in some of my commentary. That's where that has not come to fruition yet.
And when we looked at it and peeled back the onion, we said, why? What is the difference? What's happening? We have a full portfolio out there right now. I feel good about the portfolio. It's arguably the most robust that we've ever had, and we didn't build out the sales force and a lot of the marketing support commensurate with the size of the portfolio that we have right now. So we need to do this activity so we can capitalize on these contract wins that we have.
I will say with respect to R&D and new products, we have accelerated that activity. I had a number of meetings with the R&D team and with our commercial team. We are accelerating launch activity that we were looking at in the 2030 timeframe and pulling that forward a couple years. So very, very active on R&D and laser-focusing in on some new product introductions that we think are going to be pretty damn exciting. We were a little too broad on some things, so narrowing that down and executing and getting some new products into the marketplace is going to be beneficial for us.
I won't go too far on that yet, but we will spend some time in the near future going through some of those details.
Brett Fishbin, Analyst
All right, awesome. Thanks so much. I'll keep it to one question, but look forward to hearing more about that in the next few years. Thanks so much.
Al White, President and CEO
Yep. Thanks, Brett.
Tina, Conference Operator
And our final question comes from the line of Izzy Kirby. Please go ahead.
Izzy Kirby, Analyst
Hey, thanks for squeezing me in. I think most of mine have been asked as well, but just wanted to touch on Asia Pacific and China in particular, which has been a drag for quite some time now. Can you remind us of the size of that business for you guys in vision and just how you're thinking about it strategically? Like, does it get to a point where, given the dynamics in the market, it's not necessarily worth you being there anymore? Thanks.
Al White, President and CEO
Yeah. Well, China was another struggle this quarter. I mean, it was the only market, as an example, where MiSight was actually down. It has not been a great market for us, so we are re-engineering there. We've got a new team in place. We're looking at different growth opportunities to see the best way to re-establish and drive growth in that marketplace right now. I will say within the context of Asia Pac, after many quarters of negatives and product rationalization in China and some of the other markets, we are definitely coming to an end with that activity.
I know you heard that before, but I'll just tell you, when you look at the size of the business, it's gotten to be—it's just relatively small. I mean, I think it's less than 2%. It is less than 2% of revenues this quarter on a consolidated basis. So the business just is getting smaller over there. So it's a great question and a great challenge. We are looking at seeing if we can reinvigorate that business to drive success, and I do believe there are some opportunities there in some channels, like e-commerce, where we can play differently and be successful.
But we're taking a hard look at it right now because we want to get good revenues, if you will—profitable revenues and things that make sense. So we're doing work on it, and I'll update you more as we get into December and give guidance on next year.
Izzy Kirby, Analyst
Thanks so much. Can I just really quickly squeeze in a follow-up on what went on with MiSight in China in the quarter?
Al White, President and CEO
Sure. We have not been able to gain traction with MiSight in China, and if I look around the world in other markets that have spectacles, we continue to do fine. As a matter of fact, it just grows the overall marketplace. I think the unique thing with China ends up being ortho-k probably more than anything. You've had a lot of pricing pressure on ortho-k because of government pricing policies, so it's really disrupted that marketplace. There's a lot of knockoffs there.
There's a lot of disruption around pricing with ortho-k. There's a lot of knockoff spectacle lenses and so forth there. So although there's massive opportunity with the number of children that have myopia, the market itself is very disjointed right now.
Izzy Kirby, Analyst
Thanks so much.
Tina, Conference Operator
And with no further questions in queue, I will now turn the call back over for closing remarks.
Al White, President and CEO
Thank you, operator. And thank you everyone for taking the time. I know we had a lot to discuss today and I'm sure we'll have a lot of follow-up calls with details. So I appreciate everyone's interest and look forward to catching up and providing an update on our next earnings call in December. Thank you.
Tina, Conference Operator
Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
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