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Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining. I'm Jill Hall, Head of Small and Mid-Cap Strategy and B of A Global Research. So, welcome to first session of day two of our virtual Mid-Cap event. Happy you could join us. If you need the schedule for the rest of today or want to sign up for any additional sessions, feel free to reach out to me or to Maddie or Ashley in Corporate Access. But great to be hosting day two. We have, you know, over the course of the two days, about 20 small and mid-cap companies joining us. Our analysts have really great breadth of coverage in this mid-space. They cover about 1,000 small and med-caps in the U.S. So feel free to reach out to me or any of the analysts if we can get you to subscribe to any research or do any follow-up. But with that, I wanted to pass it over to Travis. Great. Great, everybody. Thanks for joining. Welcome to have Rayul Parra, CFO at Merit Medical, join us for a fireside chat this morning. If there's anything I'm not covering or you want to make sure you ask, just ping me on Bloomberg and I'll screen questions that way. But otherwise, we'll kick it off here. um you know rayul maybe uh just to kick off for investors who are newer to the merit story you know how would you describe the business in kind of simple terms and how what makes merit different from from other medtech companies yeah no great question you know i think uh you know first of all we play in the you know mostly in the interventional radiologist you know space you know uh cardiac and endoscopy and oncology um specifically kind of the breast um you You know, I think, you know, Merit has a long history of growth, Travis. I think one thing that is hard to understand is the Merit story and how we consistently grow mid to high single digits. And, you Know, we recently changed our reporting, so hopefully we can help you guys better understand that. But I think Merit wins in multiple ways. It pays attention to its customers, introduces products that really do help them. We acquire products that we can bring in that supplement the products that we deliver to our customers. We're vertically integrated in everything we do, and we have a global footprint that allows us to deliver product to our consumers. That's really kind of the short answer. And then we take a lot of pride in our quality, right? And so you combine all of those and we can really deliver value to our customers. Makes sense. Thanks a lot for that. Merit's at an interesting point in its history, you know, transition from a longtime founder, CEO to, you know, kind of nearing the end of your LRP, building the next strategic plan. You know, as you step back and look at the company today, what has changed the most over the last year and, you know, what remains left to do here? yeah i mean look i think the changes really started um really around foundations for growth right you know so five and a half years ago um as we knew fred would you know would be retiring uh we really started setting up processes and uh you know and getting the right people in the right place uh in order for that transition to happen and be smooth um you know now that we have martha here we've really kind of dove into kind of the platforms um as Weave you know if you look at our revenue reporting, you'll notice we have eight platforms. And really, that's how we're going to start running the business. And we set those up, you know, early on and foundations for growth, and have been, you Know, increasingly giving, you know, people responsibility. And I think here now with Martha, you know, now it's about accountability and making sure that you know people, you know, follow through on everything they're doing for their platform. And Martha has been a great cultural fit. And I think she's asking all the right questions, you looking at all the right places and uh we're neck deep in strategic planning right now and we'll you know get something out here hopefully for ulrp um you know sometime probably maybe with our fourth quarter call or maybe earlier uh we'll still kind of you know trying to pencil that out but uh look forward for more information and uh you know we're off to the races right now just kind of doing a deep dive into the business yeah when you're thinking about putting the new lrp together anything that we should think about differently versus kind of the last lrk It's a good question, right? I mean, I think those are the questions we're asking ourselves right now, Travis, you know, so, you know, I'm not sure that I have a good answer for you guys. I think, you know, what we've done has really worked, right. So, you know, the revenue, you know, uh, the metrics we've really kind of focused on have been revenue, uh operating margin expansion, uh free cash flow, and obviously, you know, earnings is the fallout of those, but, um, you know, and we've really expanded, you know, through December of 2025, we've expanded, you know our operating margin about 850 basis points. you know since since december of 2019 um and then you know if we hit the high end of our cgi goals um at the end of 2026 you know you're looking at somewhere around 950 basis points so those metrics have been working uh but you know when you're neck deep in strategic planning it's it's a good time to ask you know the right you know all the questions right and leave no stone unturned you know are these the right metrics going forward so uh we'll continue to look at them and and we'll We'll see where we end up. Okay. Makes sense. There's been some notable board changes as well. You know, just kind of maybe think about what that brings to merit and what does it say about, you know, where the company's at today, given some of the seasoned industry leadership you're bringing on the board? I think it's made a big difference, right? I mean, I think the latest ad is Scott. You know he's got a vast background, really, really nice guy, really knowledgeable about the industry, and we're excited to have him. Obviously, with, you know, Fred leaving, he fills, I think, a nice void, you know, just with his expertise and the roles he's done. Okay. Part of the, you know, transitions, you know, the reporting framework, you know, to foundational therapeutic products, and, you know, for those new to the story, what does that mean, and you know kind of what drove the change on the reporting side? Yeah, I think what, you know, maybe wasn't understood by, you know the street and you know uh basically because we didn't talk about it i mean i think we essentially had a different reporting structure internally right so the way we reported prior to the change um there was a lot of confusion you know um not only internally you know but externally and how we told the story um and so when martha came over um you know one of the first questions she had was hey you know how do i reconcile you know what we report externally versus you know what we give to the board versus what the internal reporting is and i said well don't bother right we've got a few options for you that I think we'll clean it up. And so, you know, we gave her a couple options that we had been kicking around internally. And she, you know, she chose, I think, the one that we were all kind of leaning towards, which is what you guys currently see with the platforms on, you know, foundational and therapeutic. And really, I think at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is better tell the merit story, right? And really kind of, you know, hopefully be able to tell a story where you guys understand, you know, where, you know, the growth is coming from, what procedures we play in, what our call points are, and so you can better assign value to us. Because I think, you know, that's been a missing piece to really understand where the growth is coming from for Merit. And I think over time, we really want to be able to clarify that. And, you know, and Martha and myself, you'll hear us, you know, kind of talk about these platforms and give you a little bit more color. And I think you'll get even more once we get through our strategic planning, because we're asking all the questions about, you know, where are we winning? How do we win? You know, Where do we need to kind of shore things up? You Know, what doesn't make sense anymore? So it's really more about from an investor perspective, to try to let the value get reflected in the multiple for what you're actually doing, right? More of a communication with investors. Yeah, and it's really how we're running the business too, right? So we have platform leads for each one of those platforms, whether it's access, OEM, vascular intervention, cardiac therapies, endoscopy. So really kind of pushing down the accountability to those platforms. And then we're all hearing the same questions. We're all asking the same question, right. And it makes it a lot easier to run the business. What are the kind of the key growth drivers in each of those segments? well i mean you know i'm not sure how much time we have here but you know uh you know i think yeah uh look i i think uh the nice thing is maybe i'll just start at the at the high level right with foundational and therapeutic um you know I I think when you look at the you know three-year CAGRs that we that we announced when we when we made the change you know the therapeutics going at it you know a nice you know you know 10 percent uh you knows You know, and then you look at the foundational or 11, sorry, when you look at foundational, you know, it's growing, you know, at roughly 6%. And the foundational does make up about two-thirds of our revenue, you know,and does have a, you know, a better, you know, gross margin than people would expect. Therapeutics is still growing faster, still has a better gross margin, but the separation between the two isn't as, you know, as steep as people would think. And I think when you look at the acquisitions and some of the R&D, you know uh projects that we've come out we're really kind of investing in all of them right i don't necessarily think that you know the primary focus of the company is going to shift to therapeutics um as you know a lot of our you know products especially on the foundational side are really therapeutic enabling devices right so we we have you know access products we have delivery products um you know and we have closure devices and all those really kind of help the therapeutic side of things you know it's very hard to do a procedure on the therapeutic side with without those products. So we think we have a really good portfolio that benefits from, you know, each other, they play off each other. And so that's what allows us to deliver that consistent kind of growth that people really like. So I would say, look, generally speaking, we've made acquisitions and most of the, you know, platforms, I think, you know, we're kind of, you know, waiting and seeing and getting some of the fruits of that hard labor. I think you guys have seen the cardiac therapies growth. It's been outstanding. I think we were at, you know, roughly 22% in Q2. You know, you look at endoscopy, that's off to a really great start. That's a combination of not only the new acquisitions, but, you Know, new product introductions. And then OEM, you Now, everybody's favorite topic has, you Know, has bounced back. You Know, that business is a little bit of chop, you Know, it has a little Bit of choppiness. I Think we've consistently announced it that way and you know disclosed it uh but we we think that you know that that oem can deliver mid to high single digits you know very consistently um and then you just go down the list right with renal therapies you've got the rhapsody you've Got Oncology which we just acquired the viewpoint you know and uh really excited what that can do to a portfolio that was really a single product portfolio now they've got two products that really complement each other so a little bit of color there. That's helpful. That was helpful. Um, is there anything about like, whether it's M&A or investment or focus between the two businesses, anything you'd call out or is it kind of equal between the tier? You know, I think it's just depending on what, you know, what's available out there. Right. I mean, I, you Know, we, we did the stat seal deal, which was a foundational product, um, that could really kind of help, you knows, across almost all platforms. Um. And then you look at the therapeutic side, right. Which, you, know, we just closed the, you Knows, obviously did the viewpoint deal that was the you know most recent announcement uh for our oncology group so look i again we we really do value both the foundational and the therapeutic portfolios uh again they're very complementary to each other um and you know we want to do a good job of balancing the you Know the the investments between both now obviously look therapeutics is growing faster so you know over time it it should you know kind of move you know closer to kind of the you know uh the size of you know foundational right you know just just by the nature of the growth profile but it won't be intentional i think you know it's really about finding a real good balance between you know on our portfolio between the two um q2 organic was growth on the top line was probably the strongest the company's had in i think three years um you know is this level of growth sustainable well you know you guys know me right i'm i'm more of a conservative type of guy right look at look i think uh q2 is always a strong quarter for us you know along with q4 I do think there's a lot of momentum in the business. We tried to explain that in Q1. I'm not sure that the message came across as clear as we wanted it to. Q1 was 3.6% growth. And you exclude the OEM kind of issues that we had in Q2 and then the recall in Q3. And the underlying business was doing really good, right? And we tried to kind of explain that to people, that as those two things bounce back, you would see some really nice growth. And that's really what happened in Q2. I mean, you know, the OEM bounced back. We got the recall kind of under control, found an alternative product for some of our customers, which really helped. And then, you Know, the base business or the rest of the business continued to do well. And we were able to deliver a really strong, you KNOW, kind of quarter. um i think the momentum's still there um obviously we bumped up our you know our um uh organic constant currency you know revenue guide um and you know now we're looking at you know roughly seven percent you know for the year kind of at the midpoint a little bit north of that um seven and a half percent you Know at the Midpoint but so you know i think things are looking great really good um you know the business feels good we're you know um not seeing any any slowdown in procedures like other people maybe have you know mentioned um we continue to ask our sales force and they continue to see the momentum so uh you know we're excited to see how the rest of the year plays out but i think we've got a good guidance you know for the rest OF THE YEAR we feel pretty confident yeah and so i mean for the for the full year you basically just raised the the guidance by the amount of the q2b um it's not like trends were improving relative expectations so it's just basically being conservative in the second half of the YEAR yeah you know i mean i i think you know that our approach is is to you know set uh you know a guidance that's realistic and achievable we're not trying to wow anybody with our guidance you know here we just want to make sure that we can execute on it and um you know i i think you know our our normal standard operating practice you know when it comes to guidance is to look at you know stuff after the second quarter um and and see where we're at and then kind of flow through any any any changes you know that we see and you know luckily for us you know it was a big beat flowed those through for the most part yep and then i mean your guidance does assume i think that's second half slow down you know if you look at the the way the guy in the implied second half is there anything in the business slowing down or is just yeah there's a little bit of seasonality in our business that people kind of remember right now um i've been around merit for about 20 years been an employee of merit for About 16 and most of those quarters you know you know there's typically a step down in the third quarter now the last couple years i think i've Been proven wrong um you know but you know i've got more history with you know that third quarter being down than not so until i see a you know kind of more consistency in that third corner uh my assumption is that it's going to be down a little bit and that's what we did essentially um so you know but fourth quarter you know should be should bounce back and be strong like like it historically is yeah and i don't know what kind of vantage point you have but there's there's some sort of curiosity like hey is there is this year a little more seasonal with with procedures like more more back half weighted with procedures versus prior years, given higher deductibles and stuff like that. And if there's any thought on that, or kind of where trends are shaping up, if that's if you're seeing any evidence of that happening? Yeah, no, you know, we're not we're not really seeing anything, right? I mean, again, I think it's a I'm not sure what to think of trends anymore, right. I mean post COVID. I think you know everybody's still trying to figure out what those trends are. And you know every time we start to get some you know some level of consistency we get that on something else right i mean you know things are starting to look pretty you know great and then you know you get the middle east conflict right that throws everything kind of off you know and then now you're starting to kind of have to deal with that too so you know i i don't know i mean i think you know our business is doing well um our sales force is excited about you know kind of the products that they have um and the momentum in the business we're not seeing any type of slowdown um you know as far as related to procedures i would just say you're you are some a little bit of that typical kind of summer you know people taking time off which is pretty standard right but nothing that i would you know call out you know um as a concern like i said the momentum continues in our business right yeah but i think people usually take vacations every summer right just you see that every year yeah yeah it's probably not that big of a difference and yeah exactly um okay excluding the the tariff refund uh you know the q2 margin came in you know above expectations how should we think about you know the drivers of that price mix productivity timing on spending whatever yeah look i mean i think the gross margin has been you know outstanding you know expansion has been outstanding this year you know i mean i think you know our sales force has done a really good job of just you know really being hyper focused on on on mix and you know um our pricing team has been you know great about holding you know people accountable to the pricing targets that we've set um our acquisitions you know are are you know are for the most part ahead of target um specifically around the gross margin they're doing much better than we anticipated um and not only from you know also the revenue side of things you know that you know they're either at or above our expectations and matter of fact i think we we bumped up our you know inorganic you know revenue you know slightly you know for this year but um you know so so things are are going well you know on the revenue set and you know operationally um i think we were all anticipating you know some level of you know price increases um you know when the conflict in the middle east came out we haven't seen anything you know yet other than freight you know which is pretty standard quite frankly i think would deal with that you know just about every year um and so um you Know our operations group is is doing everything they can to you know kind of you Know hold hold the reins on on the expense side of things and you know be more efficient um just with all the moving parts that they have and you know we've really focused on on shifting more product you know to the water or ocean uh versus air which which also helps so i mean you know where we're really looking at everything and i know people are getting sick of me saying you know that we're throwing the kitchen sink at the gross margin but um that's the reality right i mean i just i don't know how you know if somebody has finds a better way for me to explain it you know i'll take it um but we really are focused on the entire thing. Now, obviously, there's levers that are bigger and whatnot. But look, if you don't focus on all of it, you don'T get the results that we've had over the last five and a half years, you know, as far as that gross margin expansion, especially the gross margin expansion this year. So it sounds like nothing one time in the Q2 margin, except for the tariff refund, really? Yeah, other than the tarif, right. And again, I think, you Know, we flowed most of that through, we did keep some of it to reinvest in the business. Because obviously, when those hit last year they were unexpected for everybody we pulled back on a few things that and then you know as that money came back we you know we thought we'd bring some of those you know um you know opportunities forward yeah i mean we talked about some of the margin expansion that you guys have driven over the last few years earlier um you know 400 base points of gross margin 300 base points about margin between 23 and 26 like maybe help us understand like how you've been able to get that much margin out of this business yeah look i mean i i think maybe you know stepping back historically right i mean I think merit was always you know well known for for for being a you know a great top-line grower right and expanding you know on the revenue side I think one of the knocks on merit you know pre kind of foundations for growth was really like hey you guys are great at growing the business but it's it's like a continuum of investment, right? Like we never get to see kind of the earnings growth or match that, you know, get to get to See the earnings kind of match the revenue side of things. And so, you know, when we launched foundations for growth, we set out, you know, to really kind of change how we ran the business, you know, setting out processes and, you know, and, and programs in place to make sure that we could not only grow the top line, but also just, you know, start to focus on on free cash flow, and also expanding the operating margin and so you know the focus quite frankly and we were very clear from foundations for growth through uh cgi was look to the extent we can grow the gross margin and really focus on it um you know we will we will expand our operating margins you know you know through that uh to the extent we get the gross market and you know to where we wanted to you know we will also focus on operating expenses and then leaning that thing out and so look Over time, specifically through CGI, I think we've done a little bit of both. The gross margin has really kind of come through and we've really been able to invest in business, continue the growth that people like, while also expanding the operating margins, given that that gross margin has really come through and expanded. I think we've expanded our operating margins quite a bit, but we still think there's more to be had And obviously, we're not deep in that work right now, you know, trying to figure out exactly what, you know, how much we can do, what's really achievable for our next LRP. I mean, is there a lot of low-hanging fruit already over with? Is it common sense that, hey, maybe the next, you know, three years is probably a little less opportunity than the last three years? Well, look, I think it's fair to say, and I typically don't look at it as in the three years, right? I kind of look at is the two LRPs, right. over the last five and a half years i've i've said it right we've really expanded the operating margin quite significantly there's no nobody at merit thinking that hey we're done uh you know can't you know are we going to expand another 850 basis points 950 basis point you know by the end of 2020 look i i i'd be lying to you if i if i thought we could do that right like um but there's definitely more to be had um i think the question right now is is how much more um i think we're perpetually you know kind of going to go forward you're going to be on the kind of in the in the seventh inning right so pricing you know that we're going to be in the seventh inning you know contracts renew every three to five years so we'll have an opportunity there um you're always can be more efficient you know find you know leaner ways to do things on the you know on the operation side um you know we'll continue to do acquisitions you know they make sense when they make sense we're in a position where we don't have to do anything but if we find the right asset we can which will also help you know focused on r&d products you know both on the foundational and therapeutic side so look i think we've a good game plan um you know right now obviously we're we're going through the entire business you know it's a good opportunity for martha to kind of get to know you know everything that she's you know that that we have there and and really kind of asking all the right questions so that we have a really robust plan when we come out here as you look at 27 you know a lot of the investments you made over the last few years of kind of maturing at the same time you know viewpoint goes organic rhapsody adoption picks up probably you know you got newer product launches more more favorable reimbursement dynamics. I mean, is it fair to say that, you know, there's probably more growth levers available in 27 than, than today? Well, I don't want to get ahead of, of the, of our LRP announcement. Right. But look, I Don't think there's I don'T think there'S anybody at Merit that'S, you know that'S worried about growth. Right? I mean obviously we worry about everything cause that'S our job. But but look, I think we, we have, we see a lot of opportunity and it'S just about making sure that we you know keep our uh senses about ourselves you know we don't we don' t you know don't get ahead of you know or over our skis um and just make sure that we put a good game plan together that we can execute on that's what's been successful for the last two lrps right i mean i think there's very few companies at least i like to tell myself that that you know have executed two lrs back to back and you know met or exceeded the goals you know that they set and so um you know our intent is hey let's let's lay out another lrp and meet or beat it right so um that's what everybody's focus is on yep um you know m a has been a large part of the story uh over the last few years um i don't know if there's any uh like how you think about prioritizing that going forward and you know when you're kind of the strategy on the m a front what's what's kind of capacity you have or where the interest lies adjacencies etc yeah i mean look i think the strategy we've deployed over the last couple years a few years right is is one we kind of want to continue and that and that's really kind of going deeper into the platforms that we already have um and you've seen kind of some of the assets that we've dropped in right whether it's be you know whether it be an oncology endoscopy you know cardiac therapies um you know uh access um you knows all the all the these you know you know investments i think we're trying to find the you know the right balance and find the areas that our platforms are telling us hey we need you know we need a little more you know uh you know more products in this area or we're short on this we need this right so i i think you'll start to see a lot more of that type of you know deals where uh we're really more you Know trying to focus on the call points that we're already in i mean we're Already pretty you know pretty broad um and i think over the last two to three years you've really started to see kind of this really as part of cgi like hey we've got good um uh you know uh you know businesses already we're we're in you know in in good procedures we've Got good call points um you know so let's let's start digging deeper in there we've already got the sales forces that we can really take advantage of um and so that's that's really the the strategy that we'll deploy um but we'll just have more people involved right at the platform level yep what what kind of like deal sizes um or kind of what's the ceiling when you think about deal sizes and you know are you willing to take on on leverage for the right opportunity or there's like a max leverage you'd really willing to takon yeah look in this environment we've we've been pretty open about saying hey we probably don't want to be you know uh three you know greater than three times i know with interest rates you know where they're at um look i i think i i said this earlier i you know merit's in a position where we don't have to do anything and so it allows us to be, you know, pretty disciplined in our approach. I think, you know, we look at it as, you know, really doing, you know, tuck-ins. You know, obviously tuck- ins will vary by size. I mean, I don't ever like kind of committing to any type of size or, you know, or dollar value just because you just don't know what's going to be out there. But I think we've proven that we can do, you know, tucked-ins fairly well. Obviously, we're getting bigger. So, you know, do tuck-in's get a little bit bigger? Maybe, but it's not like it's sentential right i think we're really looking at where's our holes in our portfolio um you know what you know what enhances the products that we currently have and then you know you know then you look at kind of okay well what's the size of the deal right i mean you know that it's more about what the needs of the you know business are versus you know going out there and finding a deal of a specific size okay but so three times probably the max leverage yeah i think so i think that's you know especially in this environment right had you asked me six seven years ago probably you know told you for right because the interest rates were different right um it's is the lrp view of one of buybacks versus m&a like you're probably about the same or is is like with martha you know at the helm now is there kind of a different kind of maybe priority between between the two going forward look i mean i i think again i think there's a lot of opportunity that we see out there um you know i i thank uh you know capital allocation is obviously one of the key areas that we're you know we're strategically you know planning on um we're asking all those questions you know does you know you know do you know what's the opportunities that are out there right now i mean i can tell you that you know there's a ton of opportunity from an mma standpoint um it's the most active i've ever seen it and i've been around merit for like i said for 20 years and you know they've been very active since since i've Been around um but you know again it's about finding the right assets so um you know i think those questions are being asked right now you know obviously we're getting our board up to speed, you know, executive team, you know we're, we're thinking about what, what the right answer is. And so I don't, I don'T know that I have a, you Know, a change in philosophy right now, other than to say, look, we're looking at it and it should definitely be part of the discussion as, you know as you lay out the next three to five years. What you said, there's more M&A than you've seen in a long time. Like, why is that? Is it, is it people wanting to sell? Is it your team finding assets that are interesting as evaluations is wise? you know i think it's actually just a tough environment for medtech companies right i mean if you think of kind of like a smaller companies i think if you're like sub 100 million dollars and you're trying to build a sales force you know I mean those are expensive right I mean and and you know financing is hard um you know you know finding you know uh you know a way to finance you know those things is is not an easy task you know if you look at europe you know they you know are dealing with mdr and you know trying to find capital I mean it's a really tough environment Um, so I just, I just think it's, you know, um, and, you know, the bigger companies, they're trying to lean themselves out, right. And, and find opportunity, you know, to, to continue the growth and increase profitability. So I think it, and then EP firms are just, you know, they, they they're having a hard time unloading their assets. Right. So I, I think they have a bolus of, you know, assets they want to get rid of. So, you know, I, I just think there's, it's a combination of, you know everything that's going on and, um you know obviously, you know, during COVID things kind of slowed down a little bit and now all of a sudden you know post-covid you know uh the interest rate environment has changed you know cost of capital has increased um you have more regular you know you know regulations and and and so now you're kind of you know there's just a lot more assets out there people you know just saying hey maybe it's better just to sell off yeah do do you find that you're competing more with private equity on on the buying side because we're seeing more private equity trying to buy in medtech as well you know i think it's a combination of both right I mean, either strategics or PEs. I mean that those are the two, you know, you know, I mean so I look, I think it just depends on the asset to be honest, right? If we're lucky enough, you know, we're early in on an asset and there's really, you know, very, very little competition. We've been lucky in a couple of the assets where, you know, the, you know, great relationships with the, with the, with the company we were acquiring, it'd been a long-term relationship and, you know, we were able to kind of, you know, pick it up without, you know, any competition at all. Okay. How do you think about managing the dilution though from from m&a like on the on the off profit and eps line you know well i mean look we're very clear about making sure that we hit our our lrps right so i mean one of the one of the check boxes that we check is like hey you know what does this do to our operating margin we've got a target we've gotta hit you know um look if it's a you know six months to you know to to a year to integrate it and we have increased expenses but then we can accelerate you know out of that, you know, after, look, I think, you know, then obviously it's not a big deal, right? But look, we ask those questions because, you know. Again, we're, we are set on hitting those LRP goals. I mean, there is no deviating from those. You know, we have yet to find an asset where we go to our board and say, hey, we have to change our CGI, you know, our CGI goals. Like, that's just, I mean that's a high hurdle, not only just from the management team, but then even to the board, to go to the board and saying we're going to change these goals. So look, it's something we definitely look at. I think we've been lucky enough to find assets that have a nice, strong gross margin. And then when we integrate them, we can really get that operating margin. You know, and the business is also doing good so we can absorb some assets that might take a little bit longer. But we definitely don't want to be acquiring a bunch of assets that are dilutive to, you know, to our operating margin because we definitely want to hit our goals right how do you think about like the balance between higher growth versus you know less margin expansion so obviously you just take a little bit less on the margin expansion for an lrp maybe grow a little faster or vice versa expand margins a little more grow a lot less how do kind of tie it between those two yeah i mean those i mean you know again i you know feel like i'm kind of you know you know uh deferring all your questions but i mean that's those are the questions we're asking right i mean so it's a great question and you know uh so i you know i think you know we're again we're looking through our portfolios and saying hey where are we winning you know where can we accelerate those wins uh you know what you know you know where do we have a right to win and maybe it's not panning out the way we want it to be and so what do we need to do there what r&d projects do wehave you know what's the kind of the short mid and long term kind of view on when those come out and how much can they contribute um and then obviously the big unknown is is obviously acquisitions right you kind of just park that on the side and you know you're really deep into your portfolios but um i think those are the questions we're asking travis is like hey you know what you know you know did what you know can we spend more you know and accelerate revenue and then you know still expand operating margins or you know okay you know do we have to slow things i mean those are all the questions were kind of going through right now i mean that's the whole strategic planning piece i guess it's good you're asking the right questions so let's wait for the answers yeah you know hopefully we have some good answers for you and again you know the whole premise behind the revenue reporting is that hopefully we can give you better better answers better ideas you know the procedures and you know places we're playing in so that you guys you know as investors can then hopefully better understand the merit story um and then hopefully it then makes us a little bit you know more articulate and where the growth is coming from and so hopefully you guys assign more value to us right i mean that's the end games and obviously internally it matches how we're running the business uh which makes it way easier for for all of us um you know and and the added bonus is that we get to tell a better story to you guys. So hopefully we get more value for all of us. Now that the stock's moved higher, what do you think about the 2029 convert? Any plans for that at this point? I mean, obviously, I think it's been a great tool for us, right? I mean, look, the interest rate's locked in at 3%. I think when we took out the convert, everybody was kind of saying, hey, what are you doing? And interest rates are going to be down. Why would you lock yourself in, you know, and I honestly felt like interest rates weren't going to be going down, right? I mean, or not at the pace that people expected. And so, you know, when Fred and I talked, we thought it made sense to go out and raise, you know, the money in parking on the balance sheet, especially since, you know, we were earning, you know, over 5% on that, you know, 3%, you know money. So I think it's been a good tool. You know, obviously, we'll, you know uh as we get closer we'll start to think about you know what we do with that you know whether it's uh you know a new convert or we you know we do something else uh uh you know to to to supplement that so um but yeah i mean i think it it'll be the question we're asking quite frankly i'll probably you know another year or so and then i'll start kind of thinking about what we did um makes makes sense we'll kind of wait and see one one thing i was thinking about you guys are like in structural heart ep oncology endoscopy peripheral basket like all these different end markets like is there like certain end markets that you kind of feel like are are the most attractive or at least you know less attractive and like are there end markets maybe you're not in today that that you want to be in well look i i think we really like the markets that we're in right now right and i think one thing we don't probably want to do is expand outside of the areas that we've already in right i mean we're pretty wide already And like I said earlier, you know, we've taken a lot of pride in finding assets that allow us to go deeper in the areas that we already plan. So that story kind of is already unfolding. You know, We're introducing R&D products that, again, take us deeper into the bag, you know, deeper into The Call Points that we're in without expanding into other areas that, you know, then thin us out more, right? And so, yeah, I mean, I think the focus for us right now is really kind of, you the eight platforms that we have um you know let's let's get you know better at those let's get deeper um but you know i always caveat that by saying you just never know what's going to come your way you know if it's find something that makes sense you know um you got to think about it but for us it's not like we're out there looking for something that expands the areas that we're playing we really want to stay in these channels makes sense um i honestly that was that was mostly my questions i know if there's anything that that you feel like we we haven't covered do you want to make sure to get out or if anybody else on the on the line has questions uh ping me in the chat here on on zoom or ping me on bloomberg either one i'll make sure to ask it great well you know travis you know i just you know appreciate you uh you guys for having us you know um again you know the business continues to do well you know we feel like there's a lot of momentum in the business we're excited about introducing our lrp you know um you know i know people would like to kind of you know get that information you know sooner uh rather than later i i just you know I would just say look we're very methodical um you about how we go about these lrps we you know we're thoughtful we want to make sure we you know deliver something to you guys that that we feel strongly we can execute on and so um you know little patience and you know before you know it it'll be at the end of the year we'll give you you guys something to do here for the next few years will you do that on an earnings call the lrp we just give it an earnings caller um it's a good question so so one of the questions that we're asking ourselves is whether we would you know do a um uh a you know kind of a small you know a couple hour you know few hour uh you know investor you know meeting um and that would either be here in the state of utah you know in our corporate headquarters or in in new york piggybacking off of you know a conference a conference to make it easier for people one ofthe things that we really want to do, Travis, which we haven't done a good enough job of, is introducing more of the executive team to investors, right? I think we have a really good team. I think we've done a disservice to you guys by not introducing you to the depth that we have here at Merit. I know Martha embraces that to get more people out. So I think that would be a good avenue to kind of introduce people to the street and you know, and making sure that you guys can understand who, you know who's, who's behind merit. You're right. It wasn't just Fred. There was a whole team of people that were executing. And so we think it's important that you get to know who those people are. So it gives you guys even more confidence in what we can do. But yeah, we're still kind of, again, one of those ones where we're trying to figure out what to do right. And that deep in that strategic planning and that's, you Know, how do we, how do We announce that at work and what we've done and we're kicking ideas around right now. So if anybody has any ideas, you, know, send me an email, send it to Travis you know ping him give him your thoughts and you know take an input right now so we'd love to have it all right great I'll make sure to pass it along um great all right thanks a lot uh thanks for joining us good conversation great thank you guys appreciate you we'll talk later bye