Baxter International (BAX) Q2 2026 earnings call transcript

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Moran, Vice President, Investor Relations at Baxter International. Mr. Moran, you may begin. Good morning and welcome. Today we'll discuss Baxter's 2nd Quarter Results, along with our updated financial outlook for the full year 2026. This morning, a press release was issued with our preliminary earnings results and updated outlook.

The press release and investor presentation are available on the Investor section of the Baxter website. Joining me today are Andrew Heiter, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Anita Zelinski, Interim Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, and Controller.

During the call, we will be making forward-looking statements, including comments regarding our updated financial outlook for the full year 2026 and the anticipated drivers of the third quarter and second half 2026 performance. The anticipated impact of various regulatory and operational matters, including ones related to our infusion pump platform and ongoing supply chain challenges, and commentary regarding the global macroeconomic environment, including tariff impacts, and the broader inflationary pressures.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Please refer to today's press release, the forward-looking statement slide at the beginning of our investor presentation, and our SEC filings for more detail. In addition, please note that on today's call, all our comments will be on a non-GAP basis unless they are specifically called out as GAP.

Non-GAP financial measures are used to help investors understand Baxter's ongoing business performance. GAP to non-GAP reconciliations can be found in the schedules attached to our press release and our investor presentation. On the call, we will reference organic growth, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange, MSA revenues from Vantav, and the impacts associated with business acquisitions or divestitures. Unless otherwise noted, all financial results on today's call reflect continuing operations and exclude Baxter's former kidney care business, which is reported as discontinued operations.

Finally, Andrew, Anita, and I will take questions following the prepared remarks, and we kindly ask that you limit yourself to one question and one brief follow-up so that we can give as many people in the queue an opportunity.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Andrew.

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. I am encouraged by our second-quarter financial results that came in ahead of expectations. Demerating continued steady progress on our strategic priorities and improved execution across the business. In the quarter, broad-based operating performance drove organic revenue growth of 5%. Additionally, results reflect a tariff refund that was not contemplated in our original guidance, and free cash flow generation was again positive, which reflects our focus on strengthening financial flexibility. We are now in a stronger position to deliver on the financial goals we set at the start of the year. I am pleased with the progress we are making, but I'm far from satisfied.

We are still early in our turnaround, and have more work ahead of us. We are laser-focused on executing in the second half of the year, as well as driving improved performance and long-term shareholder value creation.

With that, let me provide some highlights of our performance in the quarter. Second-quarter global sales totaled approximately 3 billion, representing an increase of 5% on both a reported and organic basis. We saw growth across the portfolio, led by advanced surgery and drug compounding. Every segment and division contributed, with sales increasing in both the U. S. and internationally. Adjusted earnings for the quarter were 56 cents for diluted share, versus 59 cents in the prior year period. As expected, this reflects the known mechanical headwinds that we have previously discussed and that Anita will cover in more detail.

It also includes a tariff refund of 75 million that was not assumed in our previous guidance, and contributed approximately 11 cents for diluted share. Importantly, absent this benefit, margins and earnings still exceeded our expectations due to the strength of the operating performance.

With respect to Novum IQ LVP, we have identified corrections to address the field actions and are in the early stages of verification testing. We continue to work closely with the customers, who continue to operate with the available mitigations while also continuing to serve the market with our broader pump portfolio. Overall, we saw steady demand across our end markets during the quarter. Growth remains strong in advanced surgery, and we have a healthy order book in our care and connectivity solutions business. Of course, we continue to closely monitor the broader environment, including macroeconomic uncertainty and volatility in oil prices.

Looking ahead, we are raising our outlook for full year organic sales growth to reflect the strong Q2 performance and our confidence in the back half of the year. We are also increasing our outlook for adjusted EPS to reflect the tariff refund. We continue to expect margins to expand in the second half of the year, driven by higher volumes consistent with typical seasonality, benefits from our cost structure actions, and the roll through of higher cost inventory, shifting now to our turnaround efforts. We continue to show progress on our three strategic priorities.

The first of those priorities is stabilizing the business, particularly in areas that require increased focus. For example, we continue to focus on improving supply reliability across portions of our pharmaceutical portfolio, recognizing that challenges remain, including with certain products supplied by a contract manufacturer. Additionally, we had strong execution against customer demand and care and connectivity solutions. Overall, we are seeing encouraging progress and are focused on building greater consistency across the portfolio, as part of our efforts to stabilize and improve performance.

Earlier this year, we brought together our pharmaceuticals and infusion therapies and technologies businesses under a single leader. Our new reporting structure reflects that change, with the combined business now reported as infusion therapies and platforms, or ITP, within the medical products and therapy segment. We believe the combination will support stronger coordination, execution, and innovation across businesses that share common customers, capabilities, and workflows in the pharmacy space.

Moving on to our second strategic priority, which is strengthening the balance sheet. During the quarter, we again saw positive free cash flow generation, bringing our year to date total to $257 million. This is another positive step forward and reflects our continued focus on improving working capital and strengthening cash flow generation across the organization.

There is still significant work ahead. The strides we have made in the first half give us increased confidence and our ability to achieve our net leverage target of approximately 3x by the end of the year. Achieving a stronger and more flexible balance sheet unlocks more optionality to drive shareholder value, including strategic tuck and M&A that enhances our customer offerings and growth profile, as well as the option to return capital through share repurchases, turning to our third priority, driving continuous improvement.

Now, in its third quarter since deployment, the Baxter growth and performance system, or Baxter GPS, has taken hold in the company culture and is becoming increasingly embedded in how each division operates. Through the first half of the year, we have completed over 400 continuous improvement events held across Baxter. We have nearly 200 in flight and another 400 planned in the pipeline. While no single event will define our future, small improvements over time should lead to big improvements. Cross-functional teams are using Baxter GPS tools to identify execution risks earlier and implement mitigating actions sooner.

Continuous improvement activity is supporting working capital, commercial, manufacturing, and R&D priorities with early examples of improved efficiency and simplification across the business.

We are also making focused investments in innovation to drive growth across the portfolio. We recently launched peerview, a differentiated digital benchmarking application that enables hospitals to compare infusion data and drive infusion therapy best practices. This is strategically important for the ITP business because it enhances our digital roadmap for our infusion systems platform by including peerview and our IQX platform as a core digital capability. Further differentiating our infusion offering versus competitors. In frontline care, we recently launched a limited market release of VEST APX acute care, an airway clearance device featuring a smaller and lighter platform, updated interface, and improved patient comfort. Early customer response has been positive, with full market release planned towards the end of Q3.

Additionally, adoption continues to build for the Connect 3.6D connected patient monitoring platform, with strong order growth throughout Q2 and a growing sales funnel. In care and connectivity solutions, early momentum for Dynamo, our smart hospital stretcher continues with a strong commercial funnel and positive customer feedback. Additionally, we recently launched Dynamo in Canada, our first international expansion of the stretcher. And beyond product development, innovation is being advanced broadly across the company. As we continue to prioritize using AI internally to work smarter, move faster, and operate more efficiently. I am encouraged by the early progress we have made.

And even more excited about the future of Baxter. My visits with stakeholders around the world, engagement with our team, and conversations with our customers have validated the opportunity I saw when I decided to join the company. Baxter sits on a foundation of good businesses with leading positions in time trusted brands, with clear opportunities for more rigorous execution to unlock our full potential and deliver consistent and sustainable earnings growth, and long term value for our shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Anita to provide more detail on our second quarter results, including segment level performance, as well as our 2026 guidance. Anita, over to you.

Thanks, Andrew. And good morning, everyone. I'm happy to be joining the call this morning to cover the details of Baxter's second quarter financial performance, as well as commentary on our updated outlook for the remainder of 2026. Second quarter, 2026, global sales, total approximately three billion, and increased five percent on both a reported and organic basis. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings were 56 cents per share, a decrease of five percent. This decline reflects two known and expected headwinds that we have talked about previously.

First, the roll through of higher cost inventory produced at the end of 2025. And second, an unfavorable comparison to the prior year period, which benefited from a change in estimate that resulted in a reclassification between SG&A and cost of sales. These two headwinds were partially offset by a 11 cents per diluted share benefit, related to an an AIPA tariff refund.

Now, I'll walk through our results by reportable segment. Commentary regarding sales growth will be on an organic basis. As a reminder, beginning with our reporting this quarter, our pharmaceuticals business has been consolidated into the former infusion therapies and technologies or ITT division within our medical products and therapies segment. The combined division is now named Infusion Therapies and Platforms or ITP. In addition, certain sales previously reported within other primarily related to products and services provided through manufacturing facilities aligned with ITP are now included within the division.

Sales in our medical products and therapies segment or NPT were 2.1 billion and increased 5% in the quarter. Within NPT, sales of our new infusion therapies and platforms division totaled 1.7 billion and increased 4%. Growth was driven by drug compounding and IV solutions. This growth was partially offset by lower sales within infusion systems and injectables.

Within IV solutions, performance reflects growth off the new lower baseline of demand following clinical practice changes in the market. In infusion systems, results in the quarter reflect the net impact of lower sales due to the ongoing shipment and installation hold of the Novum IQ LBP, customer returns and transitions to spectrum. Importantly, demand for spectrum IQ remains steady. Consistent with the first quarter, we did not see a material impact from Novum LBP related returns in the second quarter.

Performance in the quarter also reflects continued strong demand for our drug compounding services, which grew double digits. This strength was partially offset by lower injectable sales due to supply constraints and continued softness in certain pre-mixed products.

Sales in advanced surgery totaled 331 million and grew 12%. Results reflect continued strong demand and increased volumes from our global portfolio of hemostats and sealants, strong commercial execution across regions and steady procedure volumes. MPTs adjusted operating margin totaled 19.3% for the quarter, decreasing 350 basis points. Results reflect higher manufacturing cost, including lower absorption and the unfavorable impact from the Section 122 Terrace.

Performance also reflects the unfavorable prior year cost timing comparison, as well as a lower contribution from pricing. These were partially offset by the benefit related to the IEPA tariff refund, as well as increased sales volumes. In our healthcare systems and technology segment, or HST, sales totaled 801 million and increased 4% in the quarter. Within HST, sales of our Care and Connectivity Solutions, or CCS division, were 502 million and grew 5%. Within CCS, performance was driven by strong patient support systems volumes globally, including execution against the US backlog and growth across international markets.

Today, in the US, we have not observed any change in hospital capital spending, and our order book continues to reflect solid demand. However, given broader macroeconomic uncertainty, we continue to closely monitor the environment. Frontline care sales were 299 million and grew 2%. Performance in the quarter reflects continued momentum from Connect 360, and the timing of large customer deals relative to the first quarter. Partially offsetting these benefits were planned global product exits in the portfolio. HST adjusted operating margin totaled 20.3% for the quarter, flat compared to the prior year period. Results benefited from the tariff refund, as well as increased sales volumes. These benefits were offset by the previously discussed unfavourable year over year comparison related to cost timing.

Finally, other sales, which now solely represent MSA revenue from VANTIV, totaled 83 million. As a reminder, these sales are included in our reported growth, but they are not reflected in our organic growth.

Now moving through the rest of the second quarter P&L, adjusted gross margins were 38.6%. A decrease of 210 basis points driven by the previously discussed headwinds and cost of good salt. These impacts were partially offset by the tariff refund benefit.

Adjusted SG&A totaled 648 million or 21.9% of sales, a decrease of 80 basis points. This reflects the benefits from previously implemented cost actions.

Adjusted R&D spending totaled 125 million or 4.2% of sales. TSA income and other reimbursements totaled 52 million in the quarter, which came in favourable versus expectations.

This favourability was offset by higher TSA related expenses and therefore did not have a material net impact to earnings. Altogether, these factors resulted in an adjusted operating margin of 14.2%. A decrease of 90 basis points. The year over year change reflects the same underlying factors discussed earlier, including higher manufacturing costs and the unfavorable prior year comparison, partially offset by the benefit from the tariff refund. Net interest expense and other expense totaled 59 million in the quarter. The adjusted tax rate for the quarter was 19.9% driven primarily by the mix of earnings across jurisdictions. In total, adjusted earnings were 56 cents per share for the quarter. Before turning to our 2026 outlook, I want to comment on cash flow and liquidity.

Second quarter, free cash flow was 181 million, improving sequentially from the first quarter and reflecting continued progress and cash generation. This progress was driven by improved operational performance and focus execution across targeted areas of working capital. We remain focused on strengthening cash flow generation and improving the balance sheet. Reducing leverage remains our top near term capital allocation priority and we continue to target approximately three times net leverage by year end.

Now turning to our updated outlook for the full year 2026. For the full year, we now expect total sales growth to be 3 to 4% on a reported basis. This reflects current foreign exchange rates, which are expected to contribute approximately 100 basis points to top line growth for the year. In addition, reported sales are expected to include a headwind of approximately 25 million from MSA revenues from VANTIV, representing approximately 30 basis points of impact on reported growth. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange and MSA revenues, we now expect organic sales growth of 2 to 3% for 2026.

This reflects the stronger performance year to date and our expectation for continued growth in the second half. As it relates to the segments, in NPT, we now expect full year organic sales to grow low single digits. This reflects stronger year to date performance, including in drug compounding. As a reminder, the year over year comparison in infusion systems improves in the second half as we lap the shipment and installation hold of Novum LVP. Our outlook continues to incorporate potential customer uncertainty surrounding the Novum ship and installation hold. In HST, we continue to expect full year organic sales to grow low single digits, supported by anticipated contributions from both the CCS and frontline care divisions.

Turning to our outlook for other P&L line items and key assumptions beginning with tariffs. We continue to expect approximately $40 million of impact net of mitigating actions in the second half of the year. TSA income and other reimbursements is now expected to range between 155 to 165 million. Higher TSA income is expected to be offset by higher TSA related expenses and therefore not expected to have a material net impact to earnings.

We continue to expect full year adjusted operating margin to range between 13 to 14%. We now expect our non-operating expenses, which include net interest expense and other income and expense, the total between 260 to 280 million. We continue to anticipate our full year tax rate to range between 18.5% and 19.5%. We continue to expect our deluded share count to average approximately 518 million shares for the year. Given the tariff refund in the quarter, we are raising our full year adjusted earnings from 185 to 205 per deluded share to 195 to 215 per share.

While we are not providing quarterly guidance, I will offer some additional color on how we expect performance to progress over the remainder of the year. Overall, we are reiterating the framework we have consistently laid out for 2026. Known mechanical headwinds in the first half, followed by expected improvement in the second half. The drivers of this improvement remain consistent with what we laid out last quarter.

First, we continue to expect higher volumes in the associated operating leverage in the second half of the year relative to the first half. This is consistent with our historic seasonality and aligns with our updated outlook for sales.

Second, we continue to expect to see the benefits from the cost structure actions taken earlier this year. As I noted in the quarter, we have already begun to realize these. And third, as previously referenced, the higher cost inventory produced at the end of 2025 has now rolled through our P&L. With respect to free cash flow, our performance through the first half represents meaningful progress and supports our expectation for improved free cash flow generation in 2026 relative to 2025.

In closing, I'm also encouraged by both our second quarter results, as well as the continued traction we are seeing across the organization from Baxter GPS. With that, we can now open up the call for Q&A.

Thank you.

I'll ask both of my questions up front here. Clearly a better than expected result on the top and bottom line in second quarter. I'd love if you could speak to some of the drivers of the acceleration on the top line. And the confidence in the guidance raised. Same question on the bottom line, but it does appear like there were a number of one time items in two queue and you did raise the EPS guide less than the two queue beat implying perhaps softer second half underlying EPS. And then on 2027, given the one time items, do you still feel confident you'll be able to grow EPS next year? Thanks a lot. Yeah. Hey, good morning, Robbie.

Look, if I do a step back, I'll walk through the shoe and pieces. First, we're pleased with the quarter. This demonstrates continued steady progress on our strategic priorities and improved execution across the business. Now, even more importantly is is we saw broad base operational performance improvement and all segments and divisions were growing. A couple call outs and MPT, we saw strength driven by double digit growth and drug compounding. We also saw continued strong performance in our advanced surgery business. And also, while the baseline was lower, we saw strong performance in our Ivy Solutions organization. In HST, CCS benefited from strong patient support systems demand. And within our FLC business, our Connects 360 product line continues to resonate well with customers.

And we see improved performance on our funnel and our ability to execute. Now, as a reminder, and I did walk through this or we did walk through this in our prepared remarks, there was a tariff refund that was not contemplated initially. It's about 11 cents. Absent this, we continue to be focused on how we're going to strengthen your organization and continue to perform. As we look at 27, the path to 27 is through execution in 26.

And especially the second half of 26. While certainly pleased with the quarter, it's one quarter. Our team is focused on driving the business and continuing to execute through the remainder of the year. Now, as we know, the non-reoccurring tariff benefit won't flow through next year. And we're going to give you additional color on 27 at the appropriate time. Right now, we're focused on executing in 26.

Hey, Travis, this is Kevin. We did call out drug compounding as a a good chunk of the beat in the quarter. And when you think about our raised for the second half of the year, it kind of reflects what we saw in the second quarter. It grew double digits. And you're absolutely right. That inherently does have lower margin. And so that does impact our mix.

I do want to add on this a little bit. While we're certainly pleased with the double digit growth, additionally, this business has favorable cash conversion. And there is some improvement on where we're focused on driving margin in a better place. So overall, again, please with this, we have some work to do to get this more in line with the overall Baxter performance.

Hey, Travis, let me start real quick just on the TSA and then I'll turn it back to get to Andrew run kind of the overall confidence in the second half. So we did see higher TSA income in the quarter than we were expecting, but importantly, we also saw higher TSA related expenses. So when we think about it at a net level at the operating income, it was not a material impact. And it's the same story for the full year. So yes, expecting higher TSA income, but you should think about it as not a big change when we're thinking about dropping through to the bottom line.

Yeah, and not much more to add here, except look, we're pleased with the performance in the quarter, but a lot of work remains and our team is very focused on this and it's just one quarter. So to your point, say new ratio, we are very focused on executing for the second half of the year, getting ready for 27 and aligning the organization around how we performed. And at its core is how we align GPS in action and that becoming our driver across the organization.

You talked about it, you know, early in the validation process. What are the kind of the next steps here, Andrew? And if you don't get Novom back on the market, how durable is SpectrumIQ is a workhorse pump? Yeah, good morning, Larry. And a couple items here, punchline is we're making progress. Now we continue to closely work with regulatory authorities and we support our current NovomIQ customers. And they're working with the mitigating actions that are in place. As we do a step back, we like our total pump portfolio. We have Novom syringe. We have spectrum LVP and they're on the IQX platform. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we've even launched peer review that enables these to truly bring higher value for our customers.

So overall, we're pleased with our total offering. We're pleased with the value proposition it brings to customers. And we're continuing to drive to when it's ready, launch LVP, that said, or Novom LVP, that said, we're very focused on bringing that by the customers today and continuing to expand our value proposition.

But you know, when we had visibility on that, you know, it was, you know, those were declining, I believe. Thanks for taking the question.

Absolutely. Look, look, this business, look, it remained pressure due to ongoing supply constraints and continues to office and pre-mix. Now, we are taking very specific actions to improve some supply conditions, select products. And there's an area, and I've talked about this in the past, and we're staying very focused on a contract manufacturer, and that does remain constrained. We are working extremely close with them on how to improve operational efficiency, how to line around product, and continued high level of quality within the solution set.

As a, you know, just outline this, our full year guidance does have this built in. So, we are in our stages around how do we execute and continue to perform in this space, we have taken that into account our full year.

And also in any quarter-end phenomena, how do you talk about facing in the quarter, anything that stands out to you? Yes, so let me take those in two areas.

First, in IV solutions, we didn't see a massive restocking, so I'd say it's not material in our overall IV business. That said, this is the new norm, and we've talked about how this is the baseline, and how our products set and our alignment with customers. We bring a high value here, and so we feel good about our market position. We don't rest on this. We're always focused on how to improve for our customers and align this business to execute. We have a high value creation, we have the ability to help our customers as they utilize this solution set, but we are at the normal within the business. And the second piece of your question throughout the quarter, look, all I can say is we saw broad-based strength across the business.

And certainly, when we look, and I called out a few of the areas that we saw some additional increase throughout the quarter, we're pleased across the board. That said, we've got a lot of work to do to finish the year strong, and our teams are very focused on rolling our sleeves up, continuing to ask you in utilizing our GPS's or guide forward.

Yeah, so a couple of items here, and I'll walk through what our teams are executing to, I'll walk through my current engagement with customers, and how we view this space. But demand remains stable, and this is really supported by US strong capital order book, and funnel visibility across PSS and our GSS business.

And so we've continued to see our ability to support our customers as they're investing for the future. That said, we are staying very close to this market, and we want to ensure that we are aligned with their needs. I will also additionally add that I have met, and part of my standard work as a CEO is to meet with customers on an ongoing basis. And what we're hearing from them is is a few items.

First, they're continued focus on on how they're investing to improve their workflow and improve their process alignment to our business. Number two, you know, I've been able to see real time firsthand how our new stretcher is resonating with our customers, and the excitement that they have around this dynamo platform, and what it's going to mean to them as far as the ability to utilize this in their network. Early days, but certainly pleased with the progress, all that to be said, we are not immune. We continue to stay very focused on this to ensure we've got alignment for our business.

Pito, this is Kevin. So just to kind of reiterate a couple of points, drug compounding a good chunk of the performance in Q2. And when we think about overall first half performance, you know, organic sales grew about two percent. Our new full year sales outlook of two to three percent means we expect sales to be at that growth rate or higher. So continued momentum.

When we think about the EPS guidance raise, I think the easiest way to think about it is that reflects the tariff refund that we received in the quarter. That was 11 cents. That was one time in nature. That was not previously included in our EPS guidance. And that is what the new EPS guidance reflects is the inclusion of that refund in Q2.

Yeah. So I think the punch line is from operating margin standpoint, we've been pretty clear about first half headwinds, followed by expected improvement in the second half. The new item this quarter is the tariff refund, which is non-reoccurring in Q2. And so if you're thinking about kind of modeling on a sequential basis for the balance of the year, you normalize for the tariff benefit in Q2, and then you think about the drivers for sequential improvement that we've talked about, higher volumes in the second half, benefits from the cost structure action. We've already seen that start to manifest in our Q2 results, and then rolling through the higher cost inventory produced at the end of 2025, which importantly, we saw that recognized in the first half of the year.

And so that item specifically is going to be a Q2 to Q3 sequential improvement. And so I think, again, as kind of an overall, the framework we've laid out is consistent.

Obviously, the first half of the year from a top line has come in a bit stronger than we expected, but we are still very confident on the full year guidance and reiterated kind of the same underlying operating performance that we had before. And just to add additional minor color around the supply question, look, it's something we continue to closely monitor. And like everyone else, we've seen some pressure here, but it has been manageable and it's within our guidance. So to be very clear, it's within our guidance. And so overall, I would say we're taking a very proactive approach on where we might have challenges, and then we take mitigating actions and align around what actions are going to get us back in line.

On oil prices, I've talked to that quite a bit with the vant of spin. It's obviously lesser of an impact on our business. Therefore, we're continuing to monitor it. That said, we've been able to offset.

Thanks. Yes, so to walk through advanced surgery, look, please do the progress here. Strong performance for the team, strong alignment with customers and having traveled with this team and having been seeing first-hand with our customers, our product set, our enablement, and how our customers really look to us to help in the patient and having high patient care really aligns with our mission. And, you know, saving sustained lives at Baxter is very important to us and this business is front and center on that. So strong performance, strong growth. The team continues to align around strong demand and increased volumes for our global portfolio and execution and staying very close to our customers through this. As far as 27, look, you know, the only thing you're going to add on on this and of course, there's a lot of moving parts.

We're laser focused on finishing 26 strong. We have aligned around the actions we have to take as an organization and being very focused on what those those align to for getting us ready as we as we finish the year and get ready for 27 and we will provide more color on 27 as a year, year comes closer. You know, that includes TSA, that includes, you know, a continued view on markets and ensuring that we've got clear focus on how we want to execute to finish the year out.

Thank you. All right, so I'll take the first part of that and and look, you know, if I just do a step back overall, we're not seeing any changes with behavior from our customers and the overall environment. We're staying very close to this and and you know, we're not immune. That said, we have not seen a change in behavior and or and or view on on our product set, but we are staying very close around this and and you know, as a reminder, I visit customers often we align around understanding what their needs are and we're launching new products to to to expand that and to truly support their focus on patient care and also workplace optimization and and Baxter as a strong ability to support that.

And then as far as gross margins for the full year, you know, we haven't provided explicit guidance at the gross margin level, but when you think about some of the items we've talked about and some of the moving pieces, mostly focused on operating margin, they're they're obviously relevant to gross margin. So obviously the tariff refund in Q2 was a positive, you know, rolling through the higher cost inventory. That was the largest headwind this quarter. And as we've noted, importantly, we've now cycled through that. And so if you're looking at Q2 as kind of your starting point, after not normalizing for the tariff refund, you should expect sequential improvement for the for the balance of the year.

Hey, Rick. This is Kevin. Maybe let me start here just talking about kind of the Q2 and then I'll turn it back to Andrew for kind of a broader innovation discussion.

So as it relates to Q2, Connex 360 did contribute to the growth year year of frontline care. Obviously, in the context of total Baxter, it's less of a contributor. But for frontline care, it was impactful in the quarter. Andrew, maybe a little more on the second part of his question on innovation more broadly. Yeah, and the piece on planned exits, I would say they're not material, but we do monitor these. And I'll just say a couple items on this business and overall. We are focused on really alignment to where we have value creation for customers. And part of that is going to be strong portfolio management. And look, I'm a market's first person. And so we want to understand where we have value for customers, alignment that value is and ensure that we're not only launching products to meet that, expand that.

We sustain our solution set that's going to keep our customers in a good place. And so think about this as base hits, that constant drive to always get better, be better, and be in front and relevant in front of our customer base. And overall, a long term within this business, look, we've seen improvement. It's early days. And I would say that the leadership team is really laser focused on how to execute and the right value creation for customers. And that ultimately, then what that means for the business growth.

You bet, Rick. And let me just walk through a couple items. And I've been very pleased with how GPS has taken shape across the organization. And look, having done this before, and I've been a part of many organizations in a blind, the team at Baxter's really embraced this. And if I were to coin a phrase, you know, boring inconsistency, brilliant execution, we want to be consistent and we want to continue to execute. And so the nuance that I want you to think through is, and I reference this, we have done, and think about this, year to date, we have done over 400 continuous improvement events. We have almost 200 in flight, and we have another 400 planned in the pipeline.

And when we think through that, that is the driving force. And as if you look at the flywheel of our GPS system, it starts with strategy. It starts with understanding the markets, understanding the position, understanding the products. And then it aligns to what are the breakthroughs that we want to drive within each business, within each segment. Then it goes to how we're going to measure KPIs. And we look at annual, we look at quarter, we look at monthly, we look at daily where possible. And then it's on our teams, actually, and I travel a lot.

And I get to see firsthand how the teams have embraced this concept, this drive, that they're passion for making tomorrow better than today. And you know, I can go reference point after reference points, I can give examples of their examples. But to me, that's how we think about the future. There's no one innovation that will define our future. There's no one continuous improvement event that will develop. It's the accumulation and combination of all of them that puts us in that execution cadence. That said, it starts with leaders. And even this week, we have a leadership team here that's going through their view on how to get better every day, how to build capable teams that drive and that passion around making tomorrow better than today.

And so we're early in our journey. Now, you nailed the question, which is, am I ever satisfied? No, I'm that constant drive to always get better, but I am pleased with our progress. That said, one quarter is one quarter. It's that drive to finish the year strong, get ready for 27, launch new exciting products that are base hits and build the teams and momentum around how we continue to perform, continue to drive. Thank you for the question.

Yeah, so a couple of items here. Look, we are not immune. We stay very focused on this. And it's a part of, look, we assess customer base. We go through all the external documentation. And what I can tell you is net net, we've not seen a massive change. In behavior and buying behavior. But we're staying very close around it. And I walked through a little bit of that earlier around funnel around outlook. So again, we're seeing strong demand for our product set. That said, we're staying very, very close to this to ensure we've got alignment with customers on their buying behaviors and their needs. So overall, no update on our expectation. That said, it's something we are continuing to monitor and continue to assess.

So a couple of things. And, you know, just walked through. Look, we are, we are pleased with our progress. No, no, one quarter is going to define us. Now we're pleased with the progress in Q2. That's sad. As I talked to the team, but we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of areas we want to target and drive in the second half of the year. And certainly, we don't want that to get ahead of ourselves. And so as we look at 27, to get there goes through 26. And, and so we'll give update and color and appropriate time, but right now we are laser focused on executing for the remainder of the year.

Okay.

You bet. And look, if I just do a step back, we view this as a low single digit area and, and, and that's overall now, and we then piece this apart and we go into different areas of the scene and, and, and continue to see strong areas and, and you know, I'll just call it a couple. We've seen strong performance in our advanced surgery business. Compounding is obviously, it's been a strong grower. That said, all of our business are focused on executing and bringing value and innovation to our customers and, and, and alignment to that cadence around that. And, and, you know, what gets me excited as we, as we continue our execution journey is, is how, and I know we didn't talk about this, but, but how we're looking at leverage and, and, and you know, we talked in our prepared remarks around getting to approximate three X by year end, obviously gaining confidence in that gaining, gaining our ability and what that means for future and, and how we think about capital allocation with, with our alignment to internal investment as well as potential talking M and A as well as, as well as other opportunities that are going to really be part of the future narrative.

That said, it's about execution. It's about how we line. It's about GPS being at the core of everything we do and our people to align to that future. Thank you.

I will now turn the call back to Andrew for closing remarks. Thanks, operator. We are encouraged by the progress of making and remain focused on the work ahead. Our turnaround is gaining traction. Execution is improving. We're this position's Baxter to deliver more consistent performance, sustainable growth, and long-term value for shareholders. Thank you for your time. Appreciate the interest. Stay safe and goodbye for now.