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Text: You'll have an opportunity to ask questions after today's remarks by management.
AmerisourceBergen has had a strong start to our fiscal '21 year.
We delivered exceptional results driven by differentiated commercial solutions with revenues of $52.5 billion for the first fiscal quarter, representing growth of 10% year-over-year and our adjusted earnings per share increasing 24% versus the prior year quarter.
Building upon our businesses resilience, our teams executed and leveraged our capabilities to create value throughout the supply chain.
Our purpose driven culture continues to empower our associates to think, plan and act decisively to support all of our partners and to facilitate patient access to critical medical treatments.
In addition to these results, as we announced in January, we entered into a strategic transaction with Walgreens Boots Alliance to acquire the majority with large healthcare business and extend and expand our existing distribution agreement.
As we have said, these agreements are part of the next evolution of enhancing AmerisourceBergen's ability to deliver innovative solutions for our partners, further building on our platform to deliver key distribution capabilities and value-added services to support patient access in new geographies.
AmerisourceBergen's ongoing focus on patient access means providing innovative services and solutions to support our manufacturer partners and provide customers with our differentiated value proposition.
World Courier, for example, is highly sought after for it's expertise in helping manufacturer partners navigate complexities on a global scale.
During the pandemic, World Courier's proven track record as an international leader in specialty logistics have enabled us to support our customers worldwide against the backdrop of changing local restrictions, limited air traffic and additional operational challenges.
We have been able to facilitate direct to patient services and global clinical trials at a time when both demand and complexity for these services was understandably at its peak.
Similarly, we continue to support patient access to vital treatments for COVID-19.
In the U.S., we continue to be the distributor of antiviral and antibody therapies, which are playing an increasingly important role as more and more hospitalized patients are receiving these treatments to help them recover from COVID-19.
In Canada, our Innomar business is partnering with FedEx as the primary distributor for the COVID vaccine.
Our team at Innomar is safety and security storing the vaccines in the storage facilities across Canada and packaging them to support the temperature requirements specified by the manufacturer.
AmerisourceBergen's scale and expertise in specialty as well as our culture of delivering collaborative and innovative solutions, enabled this important work.
We have spent years building on and enhancing our leadership, especially distribution.
This continued investment in and focus on an important part of the pharmaceutical market continues to benefit both AmerisourceBergen and our partners.
And over the last several months, the ability of our sourcing and commercial teams to leverage our expertise and data analytics capability is foundational to our facility to play an important role in providing the specialty distribution solutions for COVID related treatments.
We deliver a clear and differentiated value proposition for our partners in the U.S. healthcare system and continue to focus on building on our strengths in specialty distribution as those capabilities continue to be even more important to all our customers.
AmerisourceBergen's strong portfolio of customers is another important differentiator for us as it is an important driver of growth across our businesses.
Over the years, AmerisourceBergen has made it a priority to have long-term strategic relationships with manufacturers and providers that embrace and appreciate collaboration.
As we announced last month, we have agreed to strengthen our strategic partnership with Walgreens by extending and expanding our commercial agreements.
This extended and expanded partnership in the U.S. will allow us to create incremental growth and efficiency opportunities, enabling each of our enterprises to better serve our respective customers.
Teams from both our companies have already identified new opportunities for enhanced growth and efficiency in the areas of logistics, transportation and distribution.
As we continue to realize the improved capabilities derived from this partnership, these initiatives will enhance our ability to create differentiated value for all of AmerisourceBergen's customers.
One customer group, for whom we have consistently created new incremental value, is our independent pharmacy customers including our more than 5,000 Good Neighbor Pharmacy and Elevate Provider Network members.
These independent pharmacies provide critical care for their communities and their fearlessness and adaptability as entrepreneurs have enabled them to rise to the challenges of the pandemic.
We are proud to have been able to support them with the tools they have needed to connect with their patients and keep them healthy.
We look forward to working as a network administrator on behalf of qualified and eligible pharmacy network partners to support vaccination efforts in their communities when we enter the broader inoculation phase here in the United States.
In the Animal Health segment, our MWI business has moved swiftly to deliver innovative solutions to help our customer succeed in the current environment.
These include ensuring that MWI associates are accessible to our customers 24/7 and bolstering our customers' abilities to offer virtual services to a pet caring clients including innovative client communication solutions and home delivery services of quality medications and pet care products.
AmerisourceBergen's long-term focus on strong customer relationships, leadership in specialty distribution and manufacturing services and our continued ability to support innovation, has solidified our market leadership and business strength over the years.
From this position of strength, we recently took a significant step to power the next evolution of enhancing our ability to provide innovative and global healthcare solutions.
As we announced last month, we've entered into a strategic agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance to acquire the majority of it's Alliance Healthcare business.
Through this acquisition, we will extend our distribution capability into key new markets; add in depth, breadth and reach, and strengthening our global platform of manufacturer and other value-added services.
With expanded scale and added services, our combined business will be able to better support pharmaceutical innovation through a global footprint of broad leadership and local expertise, which further positions AmerisourceBergen as the partner of choice.
The pandemic has heightened both our public and private partners' awareness of the value of a strong and capable pharmaceutical supply chain and Alliance Healthcare better positions AmerisourceBergen to meet its increasingly global nature as well.
As our global footprint expands, so do the importance of corporate stewardship, AmerisourceBergen understand and appreciate the value of being a responsible enterprise and our recent initiatives, including continue to advance our talent and culture, accelerating workforce diversity inclusion and further investing in and supporting our associates.
We remain vigilant in our efforts to protect the safety and well-being of our associates as the COVID waves effect various regions and teams and the importance of the work we're doing remain unwavering.
Driven by our purpose, we are maintaining our enhanced protection and safety protocols and appropriately compensating frontline associates.
Remote work is still the prevailing policy for all suitable roles, we are watching the situation closely as I'm sure all of you are doing and we'll continue to prioritize the health and safety of our associates.
Underscoring our efforts to support and empower our associates around the world, AmerisourceBergen was recently certified as a Great Place to Work company following the survey of employees around the world.
The survey reveals that our associates reported a consistently positive experience with peers among leaders and in job responsibilities.
We saw high scores for all indicators and our overall score was significantly higher in the typical U.S. based company.
Additionally, for the fourth year in a row, the Human Rights Campaign has recognize AmerisourceBergen as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ equality awarding us a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index due to our non-discrimination policies, equitable benefits, support of an inclusive culture and focus on corporate social responsibility.
AmerisourceBergen recognizes the business and personal importance of having a culture that is inclusive and equitable regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity and for veterans and people with disabilities as well.
To this end, we are accelerating our diversity and inclusion strategy to become an even more diverse and equitable company.
Over the past months, we have conducted a comprehensive D&I organizational assessment, initiated a global D&I strategy to support among measured and engaged workforce, formed a D&I Council led by a senior C-suite executive and signed the CEO Pledge for diversity and inclusion, which is a commitment to increased diversity and support more inclusive work environments.
AmerisourceBergen strives to ensure that our associates feels a part of a fare inclusive and transparent workplace.
A diverse inclusive and equitable culture is a proven enhancer of business value and these initiatives will ensure that we have the right programs and tools in place in the short term, so we can become a leader in this area in the longer term.
Our success in advancing our progressive culture, one that is fuelled by the passion pride and dedication of our purpose driven associates, is visually embodied by our new brand, which we unveiled last week.
The new brand embodies a spirit of innovation for the design that is energizing, confident and inspiring, while also displaying our unity as an enterprise when we go to market.
As we continue to move our business forward, we remain committed to advancing a differentiated culture that inspires our associates, unites them and helps them develop and achieve their full potential.
Our business strength is a direct result of having engaged, passionate and dedicated associates and our focus on advancing our talent and culture remains a key strategic priority.
We have continued to execute across our business to help us deliver innovative solutions to our partners.
As AmerisourceBergen continues to involve, we are empowered by our purpose and we will build upon our strengths to drive growth across enterprise.
We will further strengthen our portfolio of solutions and customer relationships, enhance our specialty capabilities to support both upstream partners and downstream customers, continue to focus on execution and supporting innovation and enable positive outcomes globally by facilitating market access and supporting pharmaceutical innovation.
I continue to be inspired by, proud of and confident in our themes to rise to the many challenges and complexities that we face with courage and effectiveness.
By being united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, AmerisourceBergen is purpose driven and well positioned to create long-term sustainable growth.
My remarks today will focus on our adjusted non-GAAP financial results unless otherwise stated.
Growth rates and comparisons are made against the prior year December quarter.
As Steve mentioned, we clearly had a strong start to our 2021 fiscal year with growth across our businesses.
As I said back in November, we entered fiscal 2021 with strong momentum and that clearly accelerated in the quarter as our teams executed it across the entire portfolio of AmerisourceBergen businesses.
Guided by our purpose, our teams worked diligently to support pharmaceutical innovation and facilitate patient access to vital medications.
AmerisourceBergen's key differentiators continue to provide a platform for value creation for all our stakeholders, help me provide key solutions for our partners, both upstream and down, to ultimately ensure patient health and well-being.
Throughout my tenure with AmerisourceBergen, I have shared my pride in being part of a company that is driven by purpose, focused on execution and unwavering and our efforts to strengthen our associate experience.
Our associates power our success and AmerisourceBergen continues to protect, support and invest in our talent.
Turning now to discuss our first quarter results.
First, I will review our adjusted quarterly consolidated results and our segment performance.
Second, I will cover the upward revision to our fiscal 2021 guidance.
Beginning with our first quarter results, we finished the quarter with adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.18, an increase of 24%, primarily due to exceptional operating income growth across our businesses.
Our consolidated revenue was $52.5 billion, up 10%, driven by revenue growth in both the Pharmaceutical Distribution Services segment and Other, which includes our Global Commercialization Services & Animal Health businesses.
Gross profit increased 15% to $1.4 billion, driven by increases in gross profit in each operating segment.
In the quarter, gross profit margin increased 12 basis points from the prior year quarter.
This gross margin improvement is due to growth in a number of our higher margin businesses, and in particular, a significant increase in sales of specialty products.
The margin improvement is also due to the gross profit portion of the tailwind related to exiting the PharMEDium business and additionally, our reversal of reserve taken in the back half of fiscal 2020 associated with forecasted inventory value writedowns that did not materialize.
The PharMEDium comparison and the inventory writedown reversal contributed one-third of the 12 basis point gross profit margin improvement.
Consolidated operating income was $617 million, up $122 million or 25% compared to the prior year quarter.
This increase was driven by the increased gross profit in both the Pharmaceutical Distribution Services segment and our Global Commercialization & Animal Health Group, which I will discuss in more detail when I review segment level performance.
To support our revenue growth while protecting, supporting and appropriately compensating our frontline associates, operating expenses grew 8% to $810 million.
Operating expenses as a percent of revenue was 1.54% which is a 2 basis point decline from the prior year quarter.
Moving now to net interest expense, which increased $3 million to $34 million primarily due to a decrease in interest income resulting from a decline in investment interest rates.
Our effective tax rate was 22%, up from 21%, in the first quarter of fiscal 2020.
Our diluted share count declined modestly to 206.8 million shares.
Regarding free cash flow and cash balance, our adjusted free cash flow was $838 million in the first quarter.
This strong start to the year on cash flow, positions us well after the first quarter and we are on track with our adjusted free cash flow guidance for the year.
We ended the quarter with $4.9 billion of cash of which $1.1 billion was held offshore.
This completes the review of our consolidated results.
Now, I will turn to our segment results.
Beginning with Pharmaceutical Distribution Services, segment revenue was $50.5 billion, up 10%, driven by increased specialty product sales, including COVID-19 therapies, as well as growth at some of our largest customers and broadly across our businesses.
Segment operating income increased about 27% to $496 million with operating income margin up 13 basis points.
As a reminder, the exit of the PharMEDium business represented a $20 million tailwind to the segment's operating income, roughly half of which is in gross profit and the other half in operating expense.
Excluding the PharMEDium tailwind, segment operating income growth would have been up 20%.
The strong operating income performance was driven by continued positive trends across our robust portfolio of customers and broadly across our businesses and, in particular, a significant increase in sales of specialty products.
AmerisourceBergen's leadership in specialty distribution, led by the specialty physician services group, and our capabilities in supporting specialty sales into health systems continue to provide us the platform to deliver differentiated value for our partners through our scale, reach and expertise.
In the quarter, our specialty physician services group continued a strong growth as practices are prepared operationally to continue to treat their patients throughout COVID challenges.
Additionally, our health systems business had significant growth as we're helping to facilitate vital access to antiviral and antibody therapies for COVID-19 patients.
The fundamentals of the health systems business overall continue to be strong particularly as we are now also seeing increased biosimilar utilization in this customer segment.
While biosimilar utilization continues to be strongest and most impactful on the specialty physician side, we are encouraged to see growing adoption trends in health systems.
I will now turn to the Other segment, which includes businesses that focus on Global Commercialization Services & Animal Health, including World Courier, AmerisourceBergen Consulting and MWI.
In the quarter, total revenue was $2.1 billion, up 11%, driven by growth across the three operating segments.
Operating income for the group was up $17 million or 16%, primarily due to growth at MWI and World Courier.
MWI is benefiting from ongoing process initiatives and the strength of its customer relationships, particularly in the companion business where veterinarians are benefiting from increased pet ownership, increasing standards of care and adapting well virtual engagement and limited physical interaction.
World Courier has continued to differentiate itself as the provider of choice in global specialty logistics as their commercial customers navigate increased complexity, the need for cell and gene solutions grows and there is an increased utilization of direct-to-patient capabilities.
Additionally, I will note that World Courier's growth rate in the quarter was augmented by foreign currency exchange rate.
This completes the review of our segment results.
So I will now turn to our fiscal 2021 guidance.
This updated financial guidance does not include any contribution from the proposed Alliance Healthcare acquisition announced in January 2021.
As I've just outlined, AmerisourceBergen delivered exceptional growth in the first quarter and continues to expect positive trends across our business as we move further into fiscal 2021.
We are also updating other financial guidance metrics for fiscal 2021.
Revenue is now expected to be in the high single-digit percent growth range as we have seen better than expected growth in both Pharmaceutical Distribution Services and Other.
Next, operating expenses, we now expect operating expenses to grow in the mid to high single-digit percent range.
We remain committed to investing in, protecting and ensuring the safety and well-being of our associates, especially those on the front lines.
Turning now to operating income; we now expect to grow operating income in the high single-digit percent range.
This is a result of raising our pharmaceutical distribution operating income guidance to the high-single digit range, given the significant operating income growth in the first quarter and continued overall positive trends across the business.
It also reflects our improved expectation for operating income in Other, which we now believe will grow in the mid to high single-digit range as a result of positive trends in our Global Commercialization & Animal Health businesses.
Lastly, regarding shares outstanding.
Given the cash needs associated with the Alliance acquisition, we are narrowing our guidance from a range of 206 million to 207 million and we now expect to finish the year around 207 million shares outstanding.
All other financial guidance metrics for fiscal 2021 remain unchanged.
Regarding our fiscal second quarter earnings per share expectations, while we do not provide quarterly guidance, I will note that the March 2021 quarter will be impacted by a tough comparison to the March 2020 quarter, which added significant pull forward of sales associated with increased customer purchases at the onset of COVID-19.
In closing, our strong customer relationships, focus on execution excellence and commitment to innovation will continue to drive our business forward while enhancing our capabilities to serve our partners and their patients.
AmerisourceBergen is well positioned by our key differentiators and we are excited for how the Alliance Healthcare acquisition will build on our pharmaceutical centric strategy, expanding our reach and further strengthening our global platform for value-added services and solutions.
Our work around the acquisition remains on track and we look forward to welcoming the Alliance Healthcare team.
These past several quarters have proven the importance of pharmaceutical innovation and access and I have spoken in great detail about the resilience of AmerisourceBergen's business.
Clearly, our results and expectations show that the word resilience understates the strength of our business as our purpose driven teams are leveraging our capabilities and expertise to provide important value-added solutions to help contribute to positive patient outcomes globally.
We are making positive contributions to the people, planet and communities where we live and work by being responsible business and in our upcoming Global Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report, we will be providing an update on our commitments in these areas to show how our business practices align with many of the leading global sustainability frameworks.
We know that by doing business thoughtfully and with long-term perspective, AmerisourceBergen can drive sustainable growth, while creating value for all our stakeholders and fulfilling our purpose of being united in our responsibility to create healthier futures.

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q1 adjusted non-gaap earnings per share $2.18 excluding items.
updating its outlook for fiscal year 2021.
revenues of $52.5 billion for q1, a 9.7 percent increase year-over-year.
sees fy 2021 revenue growth in high-single digit percent range, up from mid-single digit percent range.
all other previously communicated aspects of co's fiscal year 2021 financial guidance and assumptions remain same.

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