Bio Rad Laboratories Inc

NYSE:BIO

Earnings Call Analysis

Annual Sales Dip, Earnings Drop amid Cost Controls

In 2023, sales decreased 4.7% to $2.671 billion from previous year's $2.802 billion, a 4.1% decline on a constant currency basis. The decrease largely reflected reduced COVID-related sales, down from $109 million to about $4 million. Meanwhile, operating costs as a percentage of sales increased, SG&A expenses were up to 30.4% from 29.1%, and R&D expenses decreased slightly to 9.4% from 9.1%. Full-year non-GAAP gross margin fell from 56.6% to 54.2%, and non-GAAP operating income margin dropped to 14.2% from 18.7%. Q4's non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.10, down from $3.31 of Q4 2022, and cash from operations more than doubled to $374.9 million.

Bio-Rad Faces Global and Operational Challenges but Stays Strategically Focused

Bio-Rad's fourth quarter earnings call started with an acknowledgment of the tough macroeconomic environment and operational difficulties the company faced, like supply chain disruptions and softer demand in biopharma and biotech. Despite these challenges, the company successfully smoothed out the operational kinks related to their new SAP system and finished the quarter with a normalized backlog. They remain determined to maintain a leading market share in the ddPCR domain, despite a flat sales year, excluding COVID-19 contributions. Strategic investments continued in expanding applications and assays for their platforms, with the promise of exciting product launches on the horizon.

Sales Performance Reflects Market Softness and Recovery Efforts

Fourth-quarter revenues declined by 6.7% on a reported basis and 7.7% on a currency-neutral basis from the previous year, sitting at $681.2 million. Life Sciences experienced a sharp decline in sales due to ongoing market weakness and reduced demand in China. Yet, Bio-Rad's Clinical Diagnostics enjoyed a 5.3% growth owing to strong diabetes product sales and lower backorders, showing signs of robustness in certain segments of the company.

Outlook for 2024: Mixed Expectations with a Focus on Second-Half Recovery

Looking forward to 2024, Bio-Rad is cautious about recovery dynamics, expecting the first half to be challenging but hopeful for improvement later in the year as market conditions stabilize. The process chromatography order book for 2024 has started weaker, paired with customer inventory adjustments that might last throughout the year.

Financial Details: Margins Squeezed by Market Conditions and Higher Costs

The company faced a contraction in gross margins due to multiple factors including lower manufacturing volumes, inflation, inventory reserves, and increased amortization and SG&A expenses. Fourth-quarter operating income dropped to 14% of sales, and R&D expenses were kept relatively consistent compared to the previous year. Despite these pressures, Bio-Rad reported a considerable net income of $349.7 million, which was influenced by non-operating factors such as the valuation of Sartorius Holdings. Non-GAAP results also revealed pressures on margins and higher SG&A, but with a slight improvement in operating margin compared to GAAP figures.

Full Year Highlights: Sales Dip but Operational Cash Flow Improves

Year-over-year, Bio-Rad's sales declined 4.7% to $2.671 billion, with Life Science taking the largest hit. Diagnostic products, however, showed growth, reflecting resilience in that market segment. Non-GAAP figures for the full year highlighted a decline in gross margin and operating income percentages due to product mix and lower fixed cost absorption, reflecting broader industry challenges.

Financial Stability Amidst Aggressive Capital Allocation

Bio-Rad remains financially stable with total cash and short-term investments totaling $1.613 billion at the end of 2023. The company generated $81 million in net cash from operating activities in Q4, amounting to a significant increase in operational cash flow for the full year at $374.9 million — nearly double the cash flow from 2022. The company is optimistic about its stocks, buying back a sizable number of shares, signaling confidence in its future performance.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bio-Rad Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Edward Chung. Please go ahead.

[Yong Chung, executive]

Thanks, Jenny. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

Today, we will review the fourth quarter and full year 2023 financial results and provide an update on key business trends for Bio-Rad. With me on the call today are Norman Schwartz, our Chief Executive Officer; Andrew Last, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Simon May, President of the Life Science Group.

Before we begin our review, I would like to caution everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements about management's goals, plans and expectations, our future financial performance and other matters. These statements are based on assumptions and expectations of future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from these plans, goals and expectations.

You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and I encourage you to review our filings with the SEC where we discuss in detail the risk factors in our business. The company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements made during the call today. Finally, our remarks today will include references to non-GAAP financials, including net income and diluted earnings per share which are financial measures that are not defined under generally accepted accounting principles.

Investors should review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP results contained in our earnings release. With that, I will now turn over the call to Andy Last, our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, to provide an update on Bio-Rad's global operations.

[Andrew Last, executive]

Okay. Many thanks, Ed, and good afternoon to everybody. Thank you for joining us. For the fourth quarter of 2023 performed largely as expected, reflecting a continuation of the macroeconomic trends started earlier this year in the biotech and biopharma segments, China and geopolitical challenges related to Russia. However, revenue picked up nicely compared to Q3 in both Life Science and Diagnostics. Although as expected, we saw a little in the way of budget flush in the fourth quarter of this year for the Life Science business.

During the quarter, we smoothed out the remaining operational challenges associated with our SAP go live in Q3 in Asia Pacific. And we are now operating on a single global instance of SAP across all our operations. In Life Science, we experienced a double-digit core business decline compared to Q4 prior year where we had challenging compares due to strong budget flush, back order burn down, and we benefited from the launch of the QX600 ddPCR platform. We were pleased with the growth of our clinical diagnostics business in Q4, especially in Asia Pacific, where we prioritize placements to capture some strong growth trends, particularly in our diabetes testing franchise. We are now past our supply chain challenges and finished the quarter with a more normalized year-end backlog.

Overall, our ddPCR franchise had a soft 2023 with sales flat when excluding COVID as compared to the high growth we had previously been experiencing from our focus in biotech and biopharma. However, we remain very positive on maintaining our leading market share in the markets we serve and are looking forward to the impact of the QX Continuum launch as we expand our focus on the lower end market later this year. In addition, we continue to prioritize investment on application and assay expansion for the platform overall with further launches coming during the year.

Further, we are excited about the launch of several other new Life Science products this year, which include our new next-generation Kemidocco Western Blot platform and single-cell DDC sample preparation solution. We were pleased with the Q4 finish for our clinical diagnostics business especially double-digit year-end growth in Asia Pacific as a function of demand and priority placements, which helped us to deliver mid-single-digit growth overall for the quarter.

During 2023, our teams worked hard on reducing our backorders in the clinical business, while bringing up Singapore to full production for the products transferred from France. We were pleased with the progress we made on our core franchises and quality controls, immunohematology, diabetes and autoimmune, [indiscernible] of the challenges in Russia and China. In Q4, inventory levels remained high and similar to Q3, continuing to reflect some impacts of our manufacturing transfer of clinical instruments from France to Singapore and also lower demand impacting inventory consumption and life sciences. We continue to exercise tight cost control in Q4 and and this included lower employee-related costs, reflecting reduced incentive compensation accruals. Looking towards 2024 for our clinical diagnostics business, we anticipate a more normalized year for customer demand. However, we remain cautious on the pace and dynamics of recovery in our Life Science business.

We expect the first half of the year to be a decline due to ongoing softness in biopharma and biotech and prior year compares, but anticipate improvement in the second half of the year as funding improves along with stabilization in the broader biopharma market. The pace and the sheer recovery in China remains uncertain, but China remains a priority market for future growth for the company. Overall, we see 2024 as a recovery transition year with higher levels of uncertainty than usual for our Life Science business due to the anticipated second half improvements in biotech and biopharma and the bioprocessing destocking recovery.

On the latter point, we entered 2024 with a softer order book for process chromatography than the last few years. mostly related to a couple of large customers with at least one of our large customers still working off elevated inventory throughout the year. On a positive note, our process chromatography resins are included in 5 of the novel therapeutics approved by the FDA during 2023. In addition, we are excited about the go-live of our new Singapore DC towards the last part of the year, which supports ongoing logistics improvements in the Asia Pacific region and globally for both businesses. On the operating cost front, we have continued to make improvements in our cost structure.

However, we will see a material step-up in cost in 2024 for employee incentive compensation accruals, which along with annual merit increases, will create a meaningful cost headwinds. We also expect to see ongoing tightening of sanctions against Russia, making conditions from meeting demand for our clinical business increasingly more challenging there. In closing, we continue to drive forward on our strategy with focus on execution on our priority market segments and platforms, investing in process efficiency gains around our single global SAP instance and maintaining our investment levels to drive innovation for our core platforms.

Thank you, and I'll now pass you to Norman to review the financial results.

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Okay. Thank you, Andy. So first, I'd like to review the results of the fourth quarter and the full year. So net sales for the fourth quarter of 2023 were $681.2 million. It's a 6.7% decline on a reported basis versus $730.3 million in Q4 of 2022 and a 7.7% decline on a currency-neutral basis. Similar to the prior quarter, the fourth quarter year-over-year revenue decline was primarily the result of ongoing weakness in the biotech and biopharma end markets, again, primarily impacting sales of our Life Science segment products. In addition, we continue to experience weak demand for Life Science products in China. I think both as a result of the macroeconomic environment as well as to some extent, the local Made in China initiatives. COVID-related sales in the prior year were $13.4 million and immaterial in the fourth quarter of 2023. Therefore, core revenue, which excludes COVID-related sales, decreased 6.0% currency neutral. And then on a geographic basis, currency-neutral revenue decreased year-over-year in the Americas and Europe and was relatively flat in Asia. So sales for Life Science grew in the fourth quarter of 2023 were $291.1 million compared to $359.7 million in Q4 of 2022, which is a 19.1% decline on a reported basis and 19.9% on a currency-neutral basis. Excluding COVID-related sales for Life Science year-over-year currency-neutral core revenue experienced a broad-based decline of approximately 17%. In addition to the challenging biotech, biopharma and markets and soft macroeconomic conditions in China during the quarter, ddPCR, and qPCR sales faced difficult compares due to the back quarter burn-down and other factors, Andy mentioned in the year ago period. And when excluding process chromatography sales, the underlying Life Science business decreased 22.1% on a currency-neutral basis versus Q4 of 2022. And finally, the Life Science Group revenue, excluding process chromatography and COVID related sales decreased 18.7% currency neutral.

On a geographic basis, Life Science year-over-year core revenue decreased across all 3 regions. Conversely, we saw broad-based growth for the Clinical Diagnostics Group. Fourth quarter sales of the Clinical Diagnostics Group were $389 million, compared to $369.6 million in Q4 of 2022. This represents a growth of 5.3% on a reported basis and 4.2% growth on a currency-neutral basis. And then core Clinical Diagnostics year-over-year revenue, which excludes COVID-related sales increased 4.3%. The Clinical Diagnostic group benefited from particular strength in diabetes product sales as well as from the reduction of elevated back orders. On a geographic basis, the Diagnostics Group revenue was primarily driven by strong growth in Asia.

For the company, Q4 reported gross margin was 53.8% on a GAAP basis and compares to 54.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022. The year-over-year gross margin decline was due to a number of factors, including lower manufacturing volume, the impacts of inflation and inventory reserves. Amortization related to prior acquisitions recorded in cost of goods was $4.5 million as compared to $4.4 million in Q4 of 2022. SG&A expenses for the fourth quarter of 2023 were $207.1 million or 30.4% of sales compared to $212.2 million or 29.1% in Q4 of 2022. The lower SG&A in the quarter was mainly due to lower employee-related expenses partially offset by a weaker dollar and a facility lease impairment. And total amortization expense related to acquisitions recorded in SG&A for the quarter was $1.2 million versus $1.7 million in Q4 of '22.

Research and development expense in the fourth quarter was $63.9 million or 9.4% of sales compared to $66.2 million or 9.1% of sales in Q4 of 2022. The lower expense levels reflect both lower employee-related and project expenses. Fourth quarter operating income was $95.3 million or 14% of sales compared to $118.7 million or 16.2% of sales in Q4 of 2022. Looking below the operating line, the change in fair market value of equity security holdings, which are substantially related to Bio-Rad's ownership of Sartorius AG shares added $324.3 million of income to the reported results.

During the quarter, interest and other income resulted in net other income of $8.8 million compared to net other expense of $6.1 million last year primarily driven by increased interest income from investments. The effective tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2023 was 18.4% compared to 24.2% for the same period in 2022. Tax rates for both years were driven by unrealized gains in equity securities and the lower rate in 2023 was primarily a result of changes in the geographical mix of earnings.

Fourth quarter reported net income was $349.7 million or $12.14 diluted earnings per share compared to net income of $827.7 million or diluted earnings per share of $27.78 in Q4 of 2022. This change from last year is, again, largely related to changes in the valuation of Sartorius Holdings.

So moving on to the non-GAAP results. On a non-GAAP basis, we have excluded certain atypical and unique items that impacted both gross and operating margins as well as other income. These items are detailed in the reconciliation table in the press release. So looking at the non-GAAP results for the fourth quarter. In cost of goods, we have excluded $4.5 million of amortization of persistent intangibles and a small restructuring benefit. These exclusions moved the gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2023 to a non-GAAP gross margin of 54.4% versus 54.9% in Q4 of 2022.

Non-GAAP SG&A in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 29.8% versus 28.5% in Q4 of 2022. In SG&A, on a non-GAAP basis, we have excluded amortization of purchased intangibles of $1.2 million; an in vitro diagnostics registration fee in Europe for previously approved products of $1.8 million and $851,000 of restructuring-related expenses. Non-GAAP R&D expense in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 9.1%, basically the same as 2022. R&D on a non-GAAP basis, we have excluded $1.3 million in restructuring expenses and $400,000 in acquisition-related costs. And accumulated -- the cumulative sum of these non-GAAP adjustments result in moving the quarterly operating margin from 14% on a GAAP basis to 15.5% on a non-GAAP basis. And this non-GAAP operating margin compares to a non-GAAP operating margin of 17.4% in Q4 of 2022. We've also excluded certain items below the operating line, which are the increase in the value of Sartorius equity holdings and loan receivable of $324.3 million and a $965,000 loss on venture investments.

The non-GAAP effective tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2023 was 22.4% compared to 28.1% for the same period in 2022. The lower tax rate in 2023 was primarily driven by the geographical mix of earnings and a release of reserves related to resolution of certain tax positions. And finally, non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $89.3 million or $3.10 diluted earnings per share compared to $98.5 million or diluted earnings per share of $3.31 in Q4 of 2022.

So now for the full year results. Net sales for the full year of 2023 were $2.671 billion, which is a 4.7% decline on a reported basis as compared to [ $2.802 billion ] in 2022. On a currency-neutral basis, full year 2023 net sales decreased 4.1%. COVID-related sales for the full year were about $4 million compared to $109 million in 2023 -- 2022 so that core year-over-year revenue, which excludes COVID-related sales decreased 0.4% or effectively flat on a currency-neutral basis.

Now looking at full year sales results by segment. Sales of the Life Science Group for 2023 were $1.178 billion, a year-over-year decline of 12% on a currency-neutral basis. When excluding COVID-related sales, Life Science year-over-year currency-neutral core revenue declined 4.9%. The majority of the year-over-year decline was driven by process chromatography, qPCR products and Western Blot.

On a geographic basis, Life Science currency-neutral full year core revenue, which as a reminder excludes COVID sales, declined in Asia and Europe while the Americas posted modest growth. Sales of the Clinical Diagnostic products for 2023 were $1.489 billion, which represents a 3.2% growth on a currency-neutral basis.

When excluding COVID-related sales, the clinical diagnostics year-over-year currency-neutral core revenue growth was 3.4% and was driven by our diabetes, quality control and blood typing products, partially offset by a decline in infectious disease products. On a geographic basis, clinical diagnostics, currency-neutral full year core revenue growth grew across all 3 regions. Overall, company full year non-GAAP gross margin was 54.2% compared to 56.6% in 2022. The year-over-year margin decline was driven mainly by product mix, lower COVID sales, inventory reserves and lower fixed cost leverage. Full year non-GAAP SG&A expense was $814.6 million or 30.5% of sales compared to $805.4 million or 28.7% of sales in 2022. The higher SG&A was related to SAP implementation in Asia, legal fees, lease impairment and higher discretionary spend, partially offset by lower employee-related costs.

Full year non-GAAP R&D was $254.8 million or 9.5% of sales versus $256.7 million or 9.2% of sales in 2022 and full year non-GAAP operating income was 14.2% compared to 18.7% in 2022, which reflects the effects of revenue decline, shifts in mix and lower fixed cost absorption. And lastly, the non-GAAP effective tax rate for the full year of 2023 was 22.3% consistent with our guidance range and compares to 22% in 2022.

So moving on to the balance sheet. Total cash and short-term investments at the end of 2023 was [ $1.613 billion ] compared to $1.796 billion at the end of 2022 and $1.765 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2023. The change in cash and short-term investments from the third quarter of 2023 was primarily due to share repurchases, working capital and the timing of tax payments.

Yesterday, just to mention, we concluded a new $200 million credit agreement maturing in now in February of 2029, which provides additional liquidity enhances Bio-Rad's financial flexibility. And this new credit line replaces a prior $200 million facility that was maturing in April of this year.

Inventory at the end of Q4 increased slightly to $780.5 million from $775.8 million in the prior quarter and was primarily due to a higher level of finished goods. As we move on from the supply chain challenges of the past 2 years, we continue to anticipate inventory decreasing to more normal levels over the next 6 to 8 quarters. For the fourth quarter of 2023, net cash generated from operating activities was $81 million, which compares to $79.7 million in Q4 of 2022. This increase mainly reflects changes in working capital, offset by the timing of tax payment.

For the full year of 2023, net cash generated from operations was $374.9 million versus $194.4 million in 2022. This increase mainly reflects changes in working capital. During the fourth quarter, we purchased 659,000 shares of our stock for a total cost of $200 million or an average purchase price of approximately $303 per share as we continue to be optimistic with our buyback program. Probably useful to note we still have nearly $280 million available for share repurchases under the current Board authorized program. And further, just so you understand full year share buybacks totaled 1,268,000 shares for approximately $429 million. Again, that's for the year. As a comparison, we purchased about 479,000 shares of our stock for $216 million in 2022. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $136.8 million, or 20.1% of sales and adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 21.4%.

Full year adjusted EBITDA, including the Sartorius dividend, was $535.9 million or about 20.1% compared to 23.8% in 2022. Net capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of 2023 were $42.1 million and full year CapEx spend was $156.5 million. And finally, depreciation and amortization for the fourth quarter was $37.2 million and $145.9 million for the full year.

So moving on to the non-GAAP guidance for 2024. As Andy alluded to earlier, we do see 2024 as a recovery transition year with higher levels of uncertainty than usual for our Life Science business, and a steady growth outlook for Diagnostics. Given the operating expense headwinds and muted revenue growth, I think it's fair to say that margin expansion will be difficult this year. Keep in mind that employee-related expenses impacting our P&L represents somewhere between a 250 to 300 basis point headwind that we need to overcome in 2024. And we have continuing geopolitical issues, especially as it relates to China and Russia. However, we remain -- as we remain focused on improving our cost structure, we are well positioned for operating margin leverage and as revenue growth returns.

Again, I think 2024 is certainly very different to a normal year. This year revenue is expected to be a bit more back-end loaded than usual based on the anticipated recovery in biotech and pharma. Consequently, we do expect soft gross gross and operating margins in the first half of the year, particularly in the first quarter, with improvements in the second half kind of in line with the market recovery and revenue normalization. So with all that is kind of a preamble, here's how we see the year rolling out. We're guiding a currency-neutral revenue growth in 2024 to be between 1% and 2.5% overall. The Life Science Group year-over-year currency-neutral revenue growth is expected to be between 0% and 2%. And for the Diagnostics group, we estimate currency-neutral revenue growth to be between 2.5% and 3%.

With the backdrop of working through elevated back quarters in the last year, we realized a little over 1% from price improvement at the corporate level, which was below inflationary trends to our overall cost. We are targeting to achieve a similar level of price realization this year, mainly through the Life Science group. We'd also like to call out the sale of a noncore contract manufacturing business in December that was part of a prior acquisition. This business is reported under other operations contributed revenue of $3 million to $4 million annually, but had really an immaterial impact on our overall financial results.

Full year non-GAAP gross margin is projected to be between 54% and 54.5% with steady improvement anticipated throughout the year. Gross margin for the first half of the year is expected to be below the full year range with the second half anticipated gross margin recovery driven by improved sales volume. Full year non-GAAP operating margin is projected to be between 13.5% and 14%. We estimate the non-GAAP full year tax rate to be between 22% and 23%, and CapEx is projected to be approximately $160 million to $180 million as we continue to invest in our infrastructure to support our multiyear growth strategy.

And finally, full year non-GAAP EBITDA, excluding the Sartorius divined is expected to be between 18.5% and 19%. And when we include the recently announced reduced Sartorius dividend, the adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between 19% and 19.5%. So in concluding today's prepared remarks, just a few comments about -- on Bio-Rad's ongoing corporate transformation, in key accomplishments, maybe a little bit as a baseline for 2024. I would say in spite of all the macro variables, we feel we have a good realistic outlook for 2024, a we're clear the pandemic. We've resolved our supply chain constraints, we successfully transitioned key diagnostics platforms to our Singapore manufacturing facility. We completed our global SAP implementation. And I think most important, we continue to make progress on our journey of transformation. In addition, as Andy mentioned, we have a number of exciting products in our pipeline to help us drive 2024 as we look forward to our life science markets recovering later in the year. Certainly, looking back over the last 4 years, I think it's important to note that our underlying business has grown at a currency-neutral compound rate of 4.6%, including, I might mention, Life Science, which has grown at over 8%. Overall, I think we feel good that we're making solid progress. And I do think we have a lot to look forward to.

[Yong Chung, executive]

That concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now open the line to take your questions. Operator?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

Your first question is from Patrick Donnelly from Citi.

[Patrick Donnelly, analyst]

Great. Norman, I guess this will be for you on the margins. Just in terms of the ramp throughout the year, can you just talk about the moving pieces? It sounds like the incentive comp is obviously going to hit pretty hard here in the first half. Is it a bit of the Singapore ramp picking up steam in the second half? Is it volume leverage? Maybe just talk about the cadence and the ramp of that margin story throughout the year here and just kind of how we should think about the base.

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes. I think it really has the most to do with the sales volumes. We get a lot of leverage from the sales and I think we should see the margins ramp with sales.

[Patrick Donnelly, analyst]

Okay. Understood. And then just on the CFO search, maybe can you provide an update of where we stand, timing when that could happen? and got a few questions on just a little bit of an update there would be helpful.

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes. We're really making good progress. And candidly, we're hoping to have a new CFO on board by the next earnings call.

[Patrick Donnelly, analyst]

Okay. All right, for the next few months. And then maybe one last one. Just in terms of the outlook on China, just how you guys are thinking about that region, both in the Life Science and Diagnostics, I know it's 2 -- maybe 2 different stories there. So yes, just kind of let us know what you're seeing there currently in each segment and the expectations for '24 would be helpful.

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes. Yes, I'd say near term, it seems to be a kind of a tough market. Not many signs of immediate recovery and a little bit of uncertainty, I think, as to when we will see that. I think that the good old days of double-digit growth in China are -- I don't see that in the foreseeable future. For our Life Science business, I think we've seen the impact of combined the effect of the -- in China for China anticorruption and in general, kind of a tough funding environment affecting the business.

For Diagnostics, I think the -- we're continuing to see steady growth, but we do continually also continue to kind of carefully monitor the situation with these these value-based pricing tenders, wondering if that may spread to some of our platforms or some of our more specialty products from the kind of higher volume products that have seen that in the short term.

[Operator]

Your next question is from Jack Meehan from Nephron Research.

[Jack Meehan, analyst]

First question I wanted to ask about the Life Science business. Can you talk about -- so in the script, you talked about how the PCR and ddPCR businesses kind of saw some backlog burn down. Could you talk about like how long you expect this to persist in 2024? And when that might start to turn the corner?

[Simon May, executive]

Yes, this is Simon. I think we're really largely through the backlog burn down compares as we head into '24. I think the short answer is the slide is pretty clean now. We've obviously got a bunch of other macro conditions impacts in the business as we referred to in the script and the H1 versus H2 contrast. But as we're sitting here today, we don't see backlog burn down as an issue going forward.

[Andrew Last, executive]

Yes. The call out -- sorry, just to add on, Simon, the callout was against the '22 Q4 compares where Life Science has a meaningful contribution from backlog burn down.

[Jack Meehan, analyst]

Got it. Okay. And then I was curious how process chrome played out in the quarter versus your expectations? I know you talked about starting the year with lower backlog there. Were there some larger than expected shipments in the quarter?

[Simon May, executive]

It's Simon again. I think at a macro level, we saw the conditions that we've been talking about all year with destocking continue to persist. And again, as I think Andy called out in the script as we enter Q1 our order book remains softer than we've seen in previous years. I guess the follow-on question there is about are we seeing any green shoots and there's certainly a lot of tentatively encouraging data starting to emerge as we look at our customer base, I think we're seeing that a number of our customers were really anticipating are going to be through the destocking impact in 2024, and we'll see something like a return to normality. But at the same time, we've got some larger customers who all the indications are, they're not going to be through it. And so I think that's going to net out to be -- tentatively we'll see some recovery in the second half, but there's still a fair amount of uncertainty around it.

[Jack Meehan, analyst]

Great. Okay. And then last one. Just was curious for any color on kind of below the line items within the guide for this year. Just anything you would call out there? I think Sartorius announced their dividend for the year? Just any color on that would be helpful.

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes, they did cut the dividend. We baked that into our guidance. And it's understandable given the kind of cash constraints that they have.

[Operator]

Your next question is from Daniel Leonard from UBS.

[Daniel Leonard, analyst]

I had another question about phasing for 2024. You mentioned that the year will be more back-end loaded. Could you elaborate on that a how more back-end loaded than typical?

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes. It's a really good question. Normally, it's something like kind of more like 49-51 when we think of a normal year, and I think we're going to see a much wider spread than that for 2024. I think it's anybody's guess exactly what it's going to be. But I think we'll see kind of a bigger delta between the first half and the second half.

[Daniel Leonard, analyst]

Much wider than the 2-point spread typically?

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes. Yes. Think we're closer towards 4, 5 points spread between first and second half than ...

[Daniel Leonard, analyst]

Appreciate that. And can you share what are your growth assumptions for process chromatography, Droplet Digital PCR and comment on whether a couple of these new product launches you talked about, the continuum and the DD seek, whether they'll be launched in time to contribute to the year?

[Simon May, executive]

Yes, Simon, again. I think for process chromatography, as I mentioned previously, we've got these competing forces of accounts that are destocked. An account status still destocking and I think the net of that is going to be negative because the accounts that are destocking are our larger accounts. I think there's still some ongoing uncertainty around that as we keep saying, the best read of the [indiscernible] leaves that we've got right now is as mentioned. For digital we had a challenging Q4 for reasons that have been mentioned and that, in the end, made it a challenging year as well. As we look to 2024, I think we're certainly seeing nice growth potential in digital PCR. Again, that's predicated to some degree on recovery of the biopharma markets, where we've been here, we've got a very strong existing position there. And also, we've got some good new product launches coming out. So the way I think about it, it's biopharma market recovery and its new product introductions, they're both when, not if, events, and so for the full year, I think we're looking at growth in digital PCR.

[Operator]

Your next question is from Conor McNamara from RBC Capital Markets.

[Conor Noel McNamara, analyst]

Just on ddPCR, can you talk about the growth in the quarter or the negative growth on equipment versus consumables? Obviously, you had a tough comp on equipment placements last year. But is there -- was there any consumable growth? And how should we think about kind of the the consumables as a percentage of total ddPCR from here and where does it go?

[Simon May, executive]

Yes. I think the short answer there is, again, primarily driven by biopharma headwinds. We saw challenges in both instruments and consumables, I'd say with approximately equal weighting. I think we've got a healthy mix now overall in terms of consumables and instruments. And again, as the markets recover, we think we're going to be the beneficiaries of that.

[Conor Noel McNamara, analyst]

Okay. Great. And then on capital deployment, obviously, you've still got some room on buybacks. Is buyback still the priority? Or is there anything on M&A that you've seen opportunities open up? Or should we just think primarily about buybacks for 2024?

[Norman Schwartz, executive]

Yes. We certainly -- as we mentioned, we've got still several hundred million dollars authorized by the Board and we'll continue to be opportunistic with share repurchases. But we still have a focus to kind of continue to look for kind of good complementary business opportunities to tuck-ins, things that are complementary to the business probably no change in our thinking around acquisitions. So it's kind of a two-pronged approach. It could be buybacks, could be could be some tuck-in acquisitions, combination of both.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Edward Chung for the closing remarks.

[Yong Chung, executive]

Thank you for joining today's call. We will be at the Citi Unplug Life Science Access Day in New York at the end of February and hope to see some of you there. As always, we appreciate your interest, and we look forward to connecting soon. Bye-bye.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may all disconnect.