Prompt:
Human: Before I turn to our business, let me say the escalation of the devastating crisis in Ukraine is top of mind.
The event caused great concern for everyone in that region, including our employees, partners and their families.
Our thoughts are with everyone who is being affected, and we certainly hope peace prevails soon.
Moving to our business.
I'm pleased to report a strong start to the fiscal year, led by a fantastic quarter at CooperVision and another solid quarter at CooperSurgical.
Within vision, our daily silicone hydrogel and myopia management portfolios continued posting strong results, leading to share gains around the world.
Within surgical, our fertility business posted great numbers and the integration of Generate Life Sciences is going really well with that business off to a fast start as part of Cooper.
We also recently announced the pending acquisition of Cook Medical's reproductive health business, which will be a great addition to our surgical franchise.
Regarding first quarter financial results, consolidated revenues were $787 million, with CooperVision at $561 million, up 11%, and CooperSurgical reaching a new all-time high of $226 million, up 30%.
Non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.24.
Moving to the details and reporting all percentages on an organic basis.
Our CooperVision growth of 14% was strong and diversified.
We grew nicely in all product categories, spheres, torics and multifocals, and all three regions posted great results, with the Americas up 8%, EMEA up 17% and Asia Pac up 19%.
This resulted in nice share gains, and we remain well positioned to capitalize on the reopening of economies around the world as COVID subsides.
All of this is driven by our multifaceted commercial strategy that we began deploying years ago, which has proven to be extremely successful.
This includes a consistent cadence of launching new products and product extensions around the world, providing customers with market-leading flexibility through our customized solutions, executing on key account relationships and delivering fantastic customer service.
We're continuing these efforts while also enhancing our business through sales force expansions and targeted marketing and infrastructure investments.
Regarding products, our daily silicone hydrogel lenses, MyDay, and clariti, posted strong results, growing 25%.
Daily silicones continue to lead the market, and we offer the broadest portfolio of products to meet customers' needs.
This includes MyDay, our premium offering, which is available in a sphere, toric and, most recently, a multifocal.
And speaking of the multifocal, the launch is going incredibly well.
The feedback from eye care practitioners regarding use of our breakthrough binocular progressive fitting system that simplifies the fit process while providing optimal visual acuity at all levels has been fantastic.
And we're continuing to receive feedback from patients that MyDay provides the best multifocal they've ever worn for exceptional near, intermediate and distant vision.
This success is having a nice halo effect on our already successful MyDay torics and spheres, so we remain very optimistic about this brand.
The other brand in our daily silicone hydrogel portfolio is clariti.
This lens is also available as a sphere, toric and multifocal and is sold as more of a mass market product.
We've seen nice growth with this brand, especially in our Asia Pac region, where we just posted an extremely strong quarter.
For our FRPs, we reported another solid quarter of 10% growth for Avaira and Biofinity, our silicone hydrogel two-week and monthly lenses.
This was led by improved product availability and our unique offerings such as Biofinity toric multifocal and Energys, the most innovative product in the monthly space.
To finish on products, we're continuing to see nice strength in torics and multifocals as we expand parameter ranges and increase availability around the world.
When you combine this with the success we're having in key accounts, it's resulting in nice share gains, and we expect that to continue.
Moving to myopia management.
We posted revenues of $20 million.
And within this, MiSight grew 172%.
This growth rate was an acceleration from Q4, which is impressive, given the general market challenges around new fits.
Overall, as a global leader in the myopia management space, our portfolio is the broadest in the industry, comprised of MiSight, the only FDA-approved myopia control product, a broad range of market-leading ortho-k lenses, and our innovative SightGlass Vision glasses.
For MiSight, we're continuing to make progress around the world, including in China, where we're preparing for a broader launch with our partner, Essilor.
Our team in China is strong, and our advisory board of key opinion leaders that are affiliated with hospitals representing over 50% of myopia management contact lens volume in China has us positioned for success in a market where childhood myopia rates are estimated to be over 80%, and we're reducing myopia as a priority for the government.
Lastly, on MiSight, our industry-leading seven-year clinical data has been getting a lot of exposure as it highlights that MiSight works for nearly all myopic children.
It cuts myopia progression by roughly 59% on average.
It works at any age a child starts treatment.
It works for as long as the child wears it.
And there's no rebound if treatment is stopped.
Moving to SightGlass myopia management glasses.
Following our co-launch in the Netherlands with Essilor in November, we started early launches in additional markets, including the U.K. and Canada.
Within Canada, we've launched the product under the MiSight name, which is an exciting step in combining our myopia management glasses and contact lenses under one brand name.
We've also accelerated activity in China and plan to launch the product later this fiscal year.
To conclude on myopia management, our momentum is strong, and we're still targeting roughly $100 million in sales for this fiscal year.
To wrap up on CooperVision, for calendar Q4, we estimate the global contact lens market grew 10%, with CooperVision growing 16%.
Within this, COVID-related challenges did negatively impact optometry offices around the world and combining this with heightened patient demand as myopia rates continue to rise is resulting in many eye care offices having full calendars of appointments.
This demand is great, but it's still impacting fit activities such as in the U.S. where new fits are still roughly 8% below pre-COVID levels.
Having said that, progress is being made, and we expect to continue seeing positive trends as COVID subsides and economies around the world reopen with people returning to the office and becoming more active in social settings.
Meanwhile, long-term macro growth trends remain intact with roughly one-third of the world being myopic today and that's expected to increase to 50% by 2050.
For CooperVision, we have a robust product portfolio, ongoing product launches, a fast-growing myopia management business and our fit data remains strong.
So we remain very bullish on our business.
We're extremely busy integrating Generate, which we just closed in mid-December.
In the meantime, we had another strong quarter with organic growth of 9%.
Before getting into the details, let's cover Generate.
We recognized roughly $34 million of revenues in the quarter as this was a stub period with only roughly one and a half months of revenue.
Of this, $23 million was in stem cell storage and $11 million in fertility.
It's tough to get exact growth rates for a stub period, but growth for the business for the full equivalent fiscal quarter was 10%.
Moving to our fertility business.
We posted sales of $97 million, up a very healthy 27% when excluding Generate and the small acquisition of Embryo Options from last January.
Strength was seen on a global basis and throughout our product portfolio, including from consumables, capital equipment and genomics.
Within our office and surgical unit, we posted sales of $129 million, up 24% as reported, but down 3% when excluding Generate and other acquisitions.
This was due to the negative impact of COVID on sales of PARAGARD, as well as certain surgical products.
Having said that, we did see growth in many areas such as our laparoscopic surgery closure products, and our acquired businesses grew nicely, especially Fetal Pillow in our labor and delivery area, which grew 160%.
Based on current trends, we expect office and surgical sales to improve and show organic growth in Q2.
To wrap up on CooperSurgical, let me touch on some market information.
For fertility, we're largely back to pre-COVID levels.
are stronger, while others outside the U.S. are still dealing with COVID-related challenges.
But net-net, the market is in a good place.
This industry continues to grow nicely, and we estimate our addressable market is approaching $2 billion with 5% to 10% long-term annual growth.
It's estimated that one in eight couples has trouble getting pregnant due to a variety of factors such as increasing maternal age and that more than 100 million individuals worldwide suffer from infertility.
Given the improving access to treatments, increasing patient awareness, greater comfort discussing IVF and increasing global disposable income, we expect this industry to grow nicely for many years to come.
Within office and surgical, as mentioned earlier, we expect growth to return in Q2 as the market fundamentals are improving.
To summarize, this was a really strong start to our fiscal year.
CooperVision posted a great quarter, and we're well positioned to continue delivering success with the best team in the industry and the broadest product portfolio in the market.
Our fertility business is growing nicely and taking share, and the Generate business is integrating really well with some exciting potential as we incorporate stem cell storage into our labor and delivery product portfolio.
Most of my commentary will be on a non-GAAP basis.
First quarter consolidated revenues were $787 million, up 16% and up 13% organically.
Consolidated gross margin decreased year over year by 90 basis points to 66.9%, driven primarily by currency, but also lower sales of PARAGARD, partially offset by lower manufacturing costs at CooperVision.
Operating expenses grew 19% to 42.3% of revenues with the addition of Generate and higher investment activity.
Consolidated operating margins were 24.6%, down from 26.9% last year due to the negative impact of FX and higher investing.
In addition, we did see higher freight, secondary handling and distribution costs within cost of goods and opex and expect this to continue, although price increases are helping to offset the impact.
Interest expense was $6.6 million on higher average debt, partially offset by lower interest rates.
The effective tax rate was 13.3%, higher primarily due to the Generate acquisition.
Non-GAAP earnings per share was $3.24 with roughly 49.9 million average shares outstanding.
FX negatively impacted us by $0.37 in the quarter, which was $0.02 worse than we forecasted at the time of our last earnings call.
Free cash flow was solid at $109 million, comprised of $166 million of operating cash flow, offset by $57 million of capex.
Net debt decreased by $1.6 billion to $3 billion, driven by the acquisition of Generate.
And our adjusted leverage ratio increased to 2.71 times.
During the quarter, we repurchased roughly 191,200 shares of the company's common stock for $78.5 million at an average purchase price of $410.41 per share, that's $410.41.
Roughly $256 million remains authorized for repurchase under our program.
We've updated our numbers to reflect our outperformance in Q1, the addition of Generate, new currency rates and the assumption of a 25-basis-point rate increase by the Fed next week.
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this would have meant the midpoint for earnings per share would have been roughly $14.35, but currency has moved significantly against us over the past week.
We're increasing prices to offset the negative impact, and hopefully, the currency moves are temporary, but we're taking a conservative approach and fully incorporating negative currency into our guidance, noting that the scope, degree and duration of the crisis on the global economy is an evolving risk.
With this, the new consolidated revenue range is $3.261 billion to $3.329 billion, up 6.5% to 8.5% organically.
Within this, CooperVision revenue guidance is $2.221 billion to $2.264 billion, up 7% to 9% organically.
CooperSurgical revenues are expected to be between $1.04 billion and $1.065 billion, up 35% to 38% as reported or 5% to 7% organically.
Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $13.70 to $14.20.
We estimate interest expense around $42 million, which assumes a 25-basis-point rate increase, remembering that $1 billion of our debt is fixed -- is at fixed rates.
We estimate the full year tax rate to be around 14%.
Regarding currency, on a year-over-year basis, the negative FX headwind is now roughly 3.5% to revenues and roughly 10% negative impact to EPS.
Note this guidance does not include our pending Cook Medical reproductive health acquisition as the transaction has not yet closed.
Regarding Cook, we announced this acquisition on February 7 for $875 million.
This is a really nice strategic fit as they manufacture and sell minimally invasive medical devices focused on their fertility and gynecology markets.
With this acquisition, we'll be improving our international fertility footprint, especially within the Asia Pac region and will be adding highly synergistic and respected labor and delivery medical devices.
From a financial perspective, this business had roughly $158 million in sales in calendar 2021, and we expect long-term growth in the range of 5% to 9%.
Additionally, we expect year one non-GAAP earnings per share accretion of roughly $0.60.
In summary, we're pleased with this quarter's performance and believe our momentum will continue, driven by strategic investments in both businesses that will support share gains and durable long-term revenue and earnings growth.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q1 non-gaap earnings per share $3.24.
q1 revenue rose 16 percent to $787.2 million.
sees fiscal 2022 non-gaap diluted earnings per share $13.70 - $14.20.


Prompt:
Human: I'm happy to report that CooperVision and CooperSurgical both posted all-time record quarterly revenues, which drove record quarterly earnings.
Our businesses have rebounded nicely from the COVID lows with silicone hydrogel lenses and myopia management leading CooperVision and fertility and PARAGARD driving CooperSurgical.
For the quarter and reporting all percentages on a constant-currency basis, consolidated revenues were $720 million, with CooperVision at $523 million, up 25%; and CooperSurgical at $197 million, up 58%.
Non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.38.
For CooperVision, the Americas grew 38% with clariti, MyDay, and Biofinity leading the way.
was the strongest part of the region, and it allowed us to rebound quickly and strongly, offsetting challenges from markets such as Canada, which are still facing significant COVID restrictions.
We're still seeing nice momentum in the U.S., and we're looking forward to the back-to-school season.
EMEA grew 15% in the quarter, led by strength in MyDay and Biofinity.
1 contact lens company in EMEA, so we're obviously over-indexed in this region and the impact from COVID did temper the market's performance.
But we're executing at a very high level and taking share, which is offsetting the challenges.
This is a region where we've been a leader for quite some time, and we're getting stronger due to success with key accounts, so we're really looking forward to a rebound in consumer activity as that will definitely benefit us.
Lastly, Asia Pac was up 19%, led by strength in clariti and MyDay.
Asia Pac is making progress rebounding from COVID, but it's slow in many countries, including Japan, where we have a strong presence.
Nevertheless, similar to EMEA, our teams are executing at a very high level and taking share, which is helping offset the market challenges.
Overall, given our geographic mix, I'm extremely happy with our performance and expect it to remain healthy as vaccines roll out around the world and consumer activity improves.
Moving to some details, silicone hydrogel dailies grew 31% with MyDay and clariti both posting strong results.
MyDay, in particular, is taking share, led by improving availability, especially for MyDay Toric.
From a market perspective, there's still roughly $2.4 billion in annual global sales of older daily hydrogels that we expect to be traded up to silicones in the coming years.
This tailwind is a significant positive for us as we're under-indexed in dailies but are seeing great performance from clariti and MyDay.
Moving to our FRP portfolio, we saw solid growth around the world led by Biofinity.
In particular, Biofinity Energys, our unique and innovative lens that uses digital zone optics to help alleviate eye fatigue from excessive screen time, and our market-leading Biofinity Toric Multifocal posted extremely strong results.
We also just announced that we've doubled the number of prescription options for Biofinity Toric and to provide context on how significant this is, Biofinity Toric is the most prescribed toric lens in the world and is now available at over 33,000 prescriptions.
That's more options than all other monthly silicone hydrogel toric lenses combined.
Regarding product launches, we remain incredibly active.
clariti and the MyDay second base curve sphere are being rolled out in Japan and MyDay Toric, Biofinity Toric Multifocal and our extended toric ranges for clariti and Biofinity continue rolling out around the world.
And I'm happy to now add MyDay Multifocal to this launch list.
We'll start seeding select countries in the coming months with a full launch planned for late this calendar year.
As part of our prelaunch activity, we completed product testing in eight countries with thousands of patients and I'm excited to say the responses have been absolutely fantastic.
That's not a huge surprise given the extremely strong clinical data and the success of MyDay Sphere and Toric, but it's still great to see.
The multifocal category is roughly 10% of the $8.5 billion global contact lens market and roughly half of that is in dailies.
Given we're currently under-indexed in the daily segment at roughly a 16% share, we believe the MyDay Multifocal will be very successful.
Moving to myopia management, our portfolio grew 122% this quarter to $14 million.
Within this, MiSight grew 152% to $4 million, and Ortho K grew 112% to $10 million.
As a global leader in the myopia management space, our portfolio is the broadest in the industry, comprised of MiSight, the only FDA-approved myopia control product; a broad range of market-leading ortho-k lenses; and our innovative SightGlass Vision spectacles.
Given the strength we're seeing, we now expect this portfolio to reach $65 million in sales this year and exceed $100 million next year.
Regarding MiSight, we've made fantastic progress with our key accounts and have entered into multiple new pilot programs with retailers and buying groups around the world.
Our momentum has been accelerating, including in the U.S., where sales grew sequentially from 100,000 to 700,000, and we're about to launch in South Korea, which should be a great market.
The only thing holding us back from growing MiSight even faster is COVID restrictions in several important countries such as Canada, Spain, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Regardless, we're making tremendous progress and expect very strong growth moving forward.
From a fitting perspective, the average age of a new MiSight wearer remains 11, compared to a regular new contact lens wearer of 17, showing this treatment is bringing kids into contact lenses at a much younger age.
Additionally, multiple professional associations are now recommending myopia management as standard of care, including the World Council of Optometry and more universities are adding educational training courses to their curriculum.
Regarding Ortho K, we had a great quarter driven by our broad product portfolio and from the halo effect we started seeing from MiSight.
As the myopia management market develops, we're seeing the value of offering multiple options to eye care professionals and this is helping our Ortho K franchise.
We also believe it will benefit our SightGlass myopia management spectacles, which are scheduled to be launched in multiple European markets prior to calendar year-end.
With respect to SightGlass, we just received two-year clinical data and are in the process of submitting it to the FDA for approval as a myopia management treatment.
It took three-year data to get MiSight approval, but we're hoping to receive approval faster for SightGlass given the strong data and that these are glasses rather than contact lenses.
In the meantime, we're finishing the legal and regulatory work to close our joint venture with Essilor Luxottica and remain very excited about the potential of that partnership.
To wrap up on myopia management, we're actively investing in sales and marketing, new launches, regulatory approvals, and R&D to keep driving success.
Our focus remains on leading with clinical data and providing the best and broadest portfolio on the market.
To conclude on vision, the rollout of vaccines is definitely benefiting us, given the consumer nature of our business.
On a longer-term basis, the macro growth trends remain solid, with roughly one-third of the world being myopic today, and that number is expected to increase to 50% by 2050.
Given our robust portfolio, new product launches, momentum with myopia management, and strong new fit data, we're in great shape for long-term sustainable growth.
Moving to CooperSurgical, this was an outstanding quarter, with record revenues of $197 million in all three focus areas: fertility, PARAGARD, and office and surgical medical devices outperforming.
Starting with fertility, revenues grew 53% year over year to $84 million, easily becoming the best fertility quarter we've ever had.
Strength was seen around the world and throughout the product portfolio.
We're taking share, and we're well-positioned for future gains with improving traction in several markets.
Our key account strategy is creating opportunities, capitalizing on our market-leading portfolio of products and services, which cover this full spectrum of clinics needs outside of pharma offerings.
We're seeing strong growth from consumable products like media and RI Witness, our proprietary automated lab management system that clinics implement to maximize safety and security by optimizing their lab practices.
And we're benefiting from increased utilization of our artificial intelligence-based genetic testing platform which increases the doctor's ability to select the best embryos for transfer and also from our capital equipment business with growth in products like incubators.
From a market perspective, COVID is still negatively impacting patient flow in many countries, but the combination of share gains and healthy patient flow in the U.S. and parts of Europe is driving our results.
Overall, increasing vaccination activity will continue supporting the recovery of the IVF industry as more patients are able to return to clinics.
And increasing maternal age and better access to IVF treatments are trends that will continue supporting strong growth for many years to come.
Within our office and surgical unit, we grew 62%, with PARAGARD up 103% and office and surgical medical devices up 41%.
PARAGARD performed really well as positive health and wellness trends continue driving patient activity.
As the only 100% hormone-free IUD in the U.S. market, the product offers fantastic, long-lasting birth control that addresses the needs and interests of women looking for a healthy alternative.
Within Medical Devices, several products performed well, including EndoSee Advance, our direct visualization system for evaluation of the endometrium, and our portfolio of uterine manipulators.
To conclude our CooperSurgical, this was an excellent quarter.
Some of it was tied to reopening activity and capital equipment sales, which are tough to forecast, but you'll note in our guidance that we expect to continue delivering strong results.
Similar to Vision, we have powerful macro trends supporting our growth and our exposure to consumer activity is benefiting us as economies around the world reopen.
To finish, let me add that we'll be releasing our new ESG report in a few weeks.
For those of you like me who are passionate about environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and good governance, you'll see a great summary of where we stand today and insights into our future efforts.
We're in an excellent ESG position, and I look forward to continuing advancements and providing additional updates in the future.
Our second-quarter consolidated revenues increased 37% year over year or 32% in constant currency to $720 million.
Consolidated gross margin increased year over year to 68.1%, up from 65.8%.
Improvement was driven by strength in our higher-margin CooperSurgical business led by PARAGARD and a nice improvement in our fertility margins where we're seeing the positive impact of transferring a significant amount of production to Costa Rica.
CooperVision also posted improving margins driven by currency and product mix.
Moving forward, we're in excellent shape to continue delivering solid gross margins.
We've completed the largest parts of our capital expansion projects at both CooperVision and CooperSurgical and expect to receive the benefits of this over time as capacity utilization increases.
Opex was up 17% year over year as expenses naturally increased with the rebound in revenues, along with higher sales and marketing expenses associated with investments in areas such as myopia management.
Having said that, expenses were kept under control, resulting in consolidated operating margins of 26.8%, up from 17.4% last year.
Interest expense was $6.1 million due to lower interest rates and lower average debt levels and the effective tax rate was 9.6%, driven by a 2.1% benefit from options exercises.
Non-GAAP earnings per share was $3.38 with roughly 49.7 million average shares outstanding.
Free cash flow was very solid at $143 million, comprised of $193 million of operating cash flow, offset by $50 million of capex.
Net debt decreased to $1.6 billion, and our adjusted leverage ratio decreased from 2.1 to 1.8 times, driven by lower debt and improving EBITDA.
Before moving to guidance, it's worth noting we acquired two businesses since we last reported earnings.
The first was No7 Contact Lens, a U.K.-based contact lens manufacturer primarily focused on specialty lenses, including Ortho K, that had annual revenue of roughly $4.4 million, which we purchased for roughly $12 million.
The second was OBP Medical, a U.S.-based medical device company that develops and markets a suite of differentiated women's health medical devices with integrated LED illumination.
OBP Medical had roughly $10 million in annual revenues, and we purchased them for $60 million.
Both deals are highly strategic and fit perfectly into CooperVision and CooperSurgical, respectively.
Moving to guidance, we continue to monitor and evaluate the scope, duration, and impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our operations and financial results.
While we still view this as a risk factor, our visibility is sufficient to allow us to provide the following update to our fiscal 2021 guidance.
Consolidated revenues are expected to range from $2.855 billion to $2.885 billion, up 14% to 15% in constant currency, with CooperVision revenues between $2.11 billion and $2.13 billion, up 11% to 12% in constant currency; and CooperSurgical revenues between $745 million and $755 million, up 25% to 27% in constant currency.
Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to range from $13.20 to $13.40.
To provide color on this earnings per share range, our gross margin expectations are unchanged as we expect CooperVision's improved manufacturing efficiencies to be offset by moderate margin pressure from growing dailies and surgical continuing to post strong results.
We expect opex as a percent of revenues to track higher than the first half of the year, led by sales and marketing investments to support reopening activity and for the ongoing support of myopia management.
Given the lower tax rate in Q2, we now expect our full-year tax rate to be around 11%.
Lastly, FX has moved against us primarily due to the yen, but we expect the tax improvement to offset this negative impact.
And to wrap up on guidance, our business continues to strengthen, and we now expect free cash flow to exceed $500 million this year.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q2 non-gaap earnings per share $3.38.
sees fiscal 2021 non-gaap diluted earnings per share $13.20 - $13.40.


Prompt:
Human: I'm pleased to report another strong quarter led by record revenues at CooperVision, where we exceeded the high end of expectations for the quarter.
Our daily silicone hydrogel and myopia management portfolios posted strong results, and our key account strategy generated share gains in markets around the world.
Within CooperSurgical, our fertility business continued to perform extremely well, and we recently announced an exciting agreement to acquire Generate Life Sciences, a great strategic fit with our fertility and labor and delivery offerings.
For the full fiscal year 2021, I'm proud to report record revenues at both CooperVision and CooperSurgical, record non-GAAP earnings and record free cash flow.
As we enter fiscal 2022, we have strong momentum and expect another record-setting year.
Regarding fourth quarter results and reporting all percentages on a constant currency basis, consolidated revenues were $759 million, with CooperVision at $565 million, up 11%; and CooperSurgical at $194 million, up 11%.
Non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.28.
For CooperVision, our daily silicone hydrogel portfolio led the way, growing 19%.
All three regions reported strength in this product category, with our premium product, MyDay, and our mass market product, clariti, both performing really well.
Biofinity also had a solid quarter, supported by strength in toric multifocal.
For the regions, the Americas grew 6%, led by our daily silicone hydrogel lenses, with particular strength in MyDay, where we continue seeing strong fit activity.
EMEA grew a healthy 15%, with improving consumer activity and strength in our key accounts driving growth and share gains.
Within this region, we posted broad-based growth from our daily silicones and Biofinity.
Asia Pac grew 14%, led by a steady improvement in consumer activity and success with several new product launches.
This region remains a very important growth driver for us, and we're investing accordingly as we're outperforming the market and taking share.
For our FRP portfolio, Biofinity posted solid results, driving growth in markets around the world with its broad offerings, including the toric multifocal and Energys, the most innovative product in the monthly space.
Regarding product launches, we remain incredibly active.
I've highlighted in the past the many products and range extensions we've been launching around the world for MyDay, clarity, and Biofinity, and all that activity continued.
This has driven consistent share gains, and we expect that to continue.
One recent launch that I want to highlight this quarter is our new MyDay multifocal.
We've launched the product in the U.S. and several major European markets, and the feedback and results are absolutely fantastic.
We're consistently hearing from eye care practitioners that the new binocular progressive fitting system is a breakthrough approach that simplifies fit and provides optimal visual acuity at all levels.
And we're hearing that from patients who are touting it as the best multifocal they've ever worn for exceptional near, intermediate, and distant vision.
We expect this launch to continue performing extremely well and to provide a nice halo effect, supporting the already successful MyDay brand of torics and spheres.
Moving to myopia management.
Our portfolio grew 63% to $21 million, with MiSight up 165% to $7 million and Ortho K products up 40%.
We reached our goal of $65 million for the year, up 76% year over year, and our momentum is strong.
As a global leader in the myopia management space, our portfolio is the broadest in the industry, comprised of MiSight, the only FDA-approved myopia control product; our broad range of market-leading Ortho K lenses; and our innovative SightGlass Vision glasses.
Regarding MiSight, we didn't quite reach our target this quarter, but we did reach $19 million in sales for the full year, up a very impressive 149% year over year.
We're making great progress with independent optometrists, buying groups, and retailers around the world, and we're seeing momentum in all these channels.
We're also making great progress in China, where we signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Essilor.
Essilor is now actively promoting MiSight following a soft launch last month at one of the largest ophthalmic trade shows, and we're on target for a full launch in fiscal Q2.
We've also assembled an advisory board of key opinion leaders, whose affiliated hospitals represent over 50% of myopia management contact lens volume in China.
This team of experts is providing fantastic insight into our MiSight positioning and how we can grow Ortho K even faster and how SightGlass will successfully fit in.
As a reminder, childhood myopia rates in China are estimated at over 80%, and reducing myopia is a priority for the Chinese government, so the opportunity is significant.
Lastly, we recently presented our industry-leading seven-year clinical study of MiSight, confirming the product works for nearly all myopic children.
It cuts myopia progression by roughly 59% on average.
It works at any age a child starts treatment.
It works for as long as the child wears it.
And there's no rebound if treatment is stopped.
These are the drivers that will continue supporting short- and long-term growth.
Regarding our other myopia management products, our Ortho K portfolio performed really well, led by success in China.
And in November, we commercially co-launched our SightGlass myopia management glasses in Europe with Essilor, and we'll be partnering with them on several additional launches coming soon.
Overall, on myopia management, our momentum is strong, and we're still targeting constant currency growth of over 50% in fiscal 2022, to roughly $100 million in sales.
To conclude on Vision, we estimate the overall contact lens market grew 7% in calendar Q3, while CooperVision grew 8% even as new fits remain below pre-COVID levels.
data, roughly 64% of eye care practitioners stated they had capacity to serve more patients but cannot, mostly due to staffing challenges.
Having said that, trends are positive, and we expect the market to grow in the 4% to 6% range this coming year, supported by improving fit activity in the U.S. and EMEA and reopening activity in Asia Pac.
Meanwhile, the long-term macro growth trends remain solid, with roughly one-third of the world being myopic today and that expected to increase to 50% by 2050.
For CooperVision, we closed this fiscal year on a really strong note, exceeding the high end of our expectations, and we've entered fiscal 2022 with a robust product portfolio, new product launches, a fast-growing myopia management business, and strong fit data.
To ensure we're seizing the growth opportunities in front of us, we've increased our sales force investments, and we'll continue with our successful myopia management investment strategy.
We have strong momentum.
We're growing faster than the market, and we expect that to continue.
Our fertility business performed exceptionally well, growing 24% year over year to $82 million.
Strength was seen around the world and throughout our product portfolio, including from consumables, capital equipment, and genomics.
One particular area of continued strength was our RI Witness platform.
This is our proprietary automated lab management system that clinics implement to maximize safety and security by optimizing their lab practices.
A system like this is especially important in today's world to improve quality control and workflow management, to enable social distancing and prevent mistakes such as embryo mismatches, which you unfortunately occasionally hear about.
Regarding the broader fertility industry, our addressable market is approaching $2 billion, with 5% to 10% long-term growth expected.
It's estimated that one in eight couples has trouble getting pregnant due to a variety of factors, such as increasing maternal age, and that more than 100 million individuals worldwide suffer from infertility.
Given the improving access to treatments, increasing patient awareness, greater comfort discussing IVF, and increasing global disposable income, this industry should grow nicely for many years to come.
Within our office and surgical unit, we grew 3%.
Medical devices performed well, growing 20%, led by our portfolio of uterine manipulators, several of our surgical devices and our next-generation EndoSee Advance product line.
Meanwhile, PARAGARD declined 17%, largely as forecasted due to buy-in activity from last quarter's price increase.
Having said that, similar to what we've seen from the general IUD market, the performance was soft, likely due to COVID staffing challenges.
Lastly, for CooperSurgical, we recently announced an agreement to acquire Generate Life Sciences for $1.6 billion.
Many of you may know this company as a cord blood storage business, but they've done a phenomenal job expanding over the years, and this business is now a great strategic fit for CooperSurgical as they're a leader in donor egg and sperm and cryopreservation services for fertility treatments, as well as being a leader in cord blood and cord tissue storage, which is an excellent fit with our labor and delivery group.
Roughly one-third of the business is in fertility, which we estimate will grow 5% to 10% long-term, supported by general industry growth.
Meanwhile, combining Generate's offerings with our existing portfolio allows us to leverage our infrastructure, launch new products and go international to accelerate growth beyond this range.
Two-thirds of the business is in cord blood and cord tissue storage, which we expect to grow 3% to 5% long term.
This is driven by increasing demand for cord tissue stem cells due to optimism around the significant number of clinical trials using these stem cells for regenerative medicine.
Consolidated, this business offers long-term sustainable growth of 4% to 6%, and we believe there are opportunities to push that range higher with potential revenue synergies as we leverage our expertise.
To finish, let me make a few comments on fiscal 2022.
Introducing annual guidance in today's world is a challenge given COVID uncertainties.
Regardless, our organic revenue growth is strong, and we expect that to continue.
We're investing in product launches, and we're doing that intelligently by leveraging our operations to ensure we receive strong returns.
I believe CooperVision is the most innovative company in the contact lens space today, with leading products in myopia management and the broadest product offerings in the market, and CooperSurgical is in an extremely exciting position, led by our fertility business.
As a company, we remain on a steady upward trend, and we see that continuing for fiscal 2022 and many years beyond.
Fourth quarter consolidated revenues increased 11% year over year and also 11% in constant currency to $759 million.
Consolidated gross margin decreased year over year by 20 basis points to 67.5% driven primarily by currency, partially offset by lower manufacturing costs at CooperVision.
Operating expenses grew 16% as strategic investments in sales and marketing to support myopia management and fertility continued.
Within this, we did see slightly higher than initially forecasted investments for SightGlass Vision and MiSight in China, along with elevated distribution costs tied to higher demand of direct shipments.
Consolidated operating margins were 24.9%, down from 26.8% last year.
Interest expense was $5 million on lower average debt, and the effective tax rate was 10.3%, helped by stock option exercises in the quarter.
Non-GAAP earnings per share was $3.28, with roughly 49.9 million average shares outstanding.
FX negatively impacted us and was roughly $0.05 worse than expected when we gave guidance last quarter.
Free cash flow was solid at $110 million, comprised of $175 million of operating cash flow, offset by $65 million of capex.
Net debt decreased to $1.4 billion, and our adjusted leverage ratio improved to 1.38 times.
Moving to 2022 guidance and excluding the recently announced Generate Life Sciences acquisition, consolidated revenues are expected to be in the range of $3.032 billion to $3.090 billion, up 6% to 8% in constant currency, with CooperVision revenues between $2.225 billion and $2.267 billion, up 6% to 8% in constant currency, and CooperSurgical revenues between $807 million and $823 million, up 6% to 8% in constant currency.
Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to range from $13.60 to $14, up 9.5% to 12.5% in constant currency.
And the tax rate is expected to be around 13%.
At the midpoint of guidance, this equates to constant currency revenue growth of roughly 7% and constant currency earnings per share growth of roughly 11%.
Regarding currency on a year-over-year basis, we're expecting an FX headwind of roughly 2.5% on revenues and 7% on EPS.
This impact will be most detrimental in Q1, where we're expecting earnings per share in the $3 to $3.10 range.
Before opening the call to questions, let me touch on the Generate Life Sciences acquisition that we announced on November 10.
As of today, we're optimistic we'll close in the next couple of weeks, which would give us roughly 10.5 months of their operations in our fiscal 2022.
Having said that, we're still waiting for final regulatory approvals, so we're not providing specific guidance today.
In the meantime, let me walk you through the deal accretion that we expect.
As previously announced, Generate has roughly $250 million in trailing 12-month revenue.
Gross margins are expected to be roughly 70%.
And opex is expected to be elevated in year one as synergies are expected to be minimal as we integrate and invest in the business.
As we are now closer to securing permanent financing for this transaction, we are updating our year one non-GAAP earnings per share accretion estimate to around $0.50 and would add that we expect this accretion to improve in year two with synergies.
In summary, we're pleased with how we closed this fiscal year.
And we look forward -- and as we look forward into 2022 and beyond, we continue to believe our strategic investments will drive top-line momentum, supporting share gains in both businesses and long-term sustainable earnings growth.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q4 non-gaap earnings per share $3.28.
q4 revenue rose 11 percent to $759.1 million.
initiating fiscal year 2022 guidance.
sees fiscal 2022 non-gaap diluted earnings per share $13.60 - $14.00.
fiscal year 2022 guidance does not include generate life sciences acquisition.


Prompt:
Human: Joining us today are Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings; and Jose Montero, our CFO.
First, Pedro will start by going over our third quarter highlights, followed by Jose, who will discuss our financial results.
Copa Holdings' financial reports have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.
In today's call, we will discuss non-IFRS financial measures.
Many of these are discussed in our annual report filed with the SEC.
To them, as always, my utmost respect and admiration.
The increasing vaccination rates and reduced travel restrictions in Latin America are positively affecting air travel demand in the region, enabling us to grow capacity quarter-over-quarter, while improving load factors.
Since restarting operations in Q3 2020, we have increased flight from almost zero to nearly 70% of our pre-pandemic capacity in Q3 2021.
Going forward, we expect further relaxation of travel restrictions and a continued demand recovery, which should allow us to deploy additional capacity in the fourth quarter and 2022.
But of course, COVID has not gone away and we've seen in other parts of the world, additional waves of the virus could affect demand in the future.
So, we will remain focused and flexible in terms of capacity, adjusting our plans as needed.
Now, I'll highlight some of our third quarter results.
In terms of capacity, we reached almost 70% of third quarter 2019 ASMs compared to 48% of 2019 capacity in the second quarter.
Load factor came in at 79%, an improvement of two percentage points compared to the second quarter on an almost 50% quarter-over-quarter ASM growth.
Revenues increased by 46% over the previous quarter to $445 million.
Our ex-fuel CASM decreased from $0.76 in Q2 to $0.62 in Q3, reaching 2019 unit cost levels at 70% of 2019 capacity.
We reported an operating profit of $59 million and an operating margin of 13.3% in the quarter.
Excluding a $10.4 million passenger revenue adjustments, that Company would have reported an operating profit of $48.6 million and an operating margin of 11.2%.
We had a cash buildup of $54 million and ended the quarter with a cash balance of $1.3 billion and a total liquidity of over $1.6 billion.
On the operational front, the Company delivered an untimed performance of 89.4% and that completion factor of 99.8%, ONCE again among the best in the industry.
This results a true testament to our employees' continuous commitment to delivering a world-class product to our passengers.
With regards to our network, we're excited to start our first new destination since the beginning of the pandemic.
Beginning in December, we will offer service to three new cities, Armenia and Cucuta in Colombia and Atlanta in the US.
By the end of the year, Copa will provide service to 72 destinations in North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean.
And we expect to recover service to the rest of our pre-pandemic network during 2022, strengthening our position at the most complete and convenient hub in Latin America.
During the quarter, we agreed with Boeing to accelerate the delivery of 12 737 MAX 9 that were originally intended to be delivered starting in 2025.
We will receive two of these aircraft in 2022 for a total of seven MAX 9 deliveries next year and the other 10 aircrafts will be added to Copa's deliveries from 2023 through 2025.
As to Boeing, during the fourth quarter, it expects to receive two aircrafts from the Copa fleet to end the year with a total of eight 737-800.
In closing, I'd like to reaffirm that we have a proven and strong business model, which is based on operating the best and most convenient network for inter-Latin America travel from our hub of the America leveraging Panamax advantageous geographic position, with the region's lowest unit cost for a full service carrier, best on-time performance and strongest balance sheet.
Going forward, the Company expects that at top of the Americas will be an even more valuable source of strategic advantage.
Hope you're doing well.
I'd like to join Pedro and acknowledging our great corporate team for all their efforts and great spirit during these many months of the pandemic.
I will start by going over our third quarter results.
Our capacity came in at 4.4 billion available seat miles, which amounts to 69% of the capacity operated per quarter of 2019.
Load factor came in at an average of 79% for the quarter, an increase compared to Q2 while operating 49% more ASMs. We reported a net profit of $8.2 million or $0.19 per share.
Excluding special items, we would have reported a net profit of $29.9 million or $0.70 per share.
Special items for the quarter are comprised mainly of an unrealized mark-to-market loss of $32.1 million related to the Company's convertible notes issued in 2020 and $10.4 million in revenues related to unredeemed tickets, which we are not included in our underlying results as they correspond to sales made during 2019 and early in 2020.
We reported a quarterly operating profit which came in at $59 million.
Excluding the $10.4 million in unredeemed ticket revenues, we had an adjusted operating profit of $48.6 million for the quarter.
Our operating margin was 13.3%.
Excluding the passenger revenue adjustments, we would have reported an operating margin of 11.2%.
Unit cost excluding fuel were better than in the second quarter at $0.062 per ASM, driven by a quarter-over-quarter capacity growth of 49%.
We continue with our cost savings initiatives and we are now targeting to achieve the unit cost below $0.06 once we reach above 90% of our pre-COVID-19 capacity.
During the third quarter, we had a cash buildup of approximately $54 million, driven mainly by increased sales during the period.
As a reminder, for our cash build of measure, we exclude all extraordinary proceeds from asset sales, but include capex and the payment of our leases and other financial obligations.
I want to spend some time out discussing the balance sheet and liquidity.
As of the end of the third quarter, we had assets of close to $4.2 billion and our cash short and long-term investments ended at $1.3 billion.
We also ended the quarter with an aggregate amount of $345 million in unutilized committed credit facilities, which added to our cash, brought our total liquidity to more than $1.6 billion.
In terms of debt, we ended the quarter with $1.6 billion in debt and lease liabilities at similar levels to the ones reported for the end of the second quarter.
Turning now for fleet.
In July, we finalized the sale and delivery of our last Embraer 190 and during the quarter, we delivered two Boeing 737-700s to their new owner, the end of the third quarter with 87 aircraft; 68 737-800 70%, 13 737 MAX 9s, and six 737-700.
These figures, we include aircraft currently in temporary storage that we plan to reactivate in the upcoming months.
During the fourth quarter, we expect to receive two more 737 MAX 9s to end the year with a total of 89 aircraft.
As the remainder of the year, based on the current state of the demand environment and air travel restrictions, we can provide the following outlook for the fourth quarter of 2021.
We expect capacity to be approximately 83% of Q4 2019 levels at about 5.1 billion ASMs and we expect our operating margin to be approximately 4%.
Our Q4 2021 outlook is based on the following assumptions; revenues of approximately 80% of Q4 2019 levels at about $545 million, CASM ex-fuel of approximately $0.61, and oil price of $2.50 per gallon, an increment of approximately 17% quarter-over-quarter.
Given the uncertainty, it is still premature to give a full year 2022 guidance.
However, for the first half of the year, we preliminarily expect our capacity measuring ASMs to be approximately 92% of the capacity operated during the first half of 2019.
And with that, we'll open the call to some questions.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
compname reports q3 earnings per share of $0.19.
q3 earnings per share $0.19.
q3 earnings per share $0.70 excluding items.
copa holdings - in quarter agreed with boeing to accelerate delivery of 12 boeing 737 max 9s from current order, two in 2022 & other 10 between 2023 & 2025.


Prompt:
Human: As always, we appreciate your interest in Central Pacific Financial Corp. In the first quarter of 2021, Central Pacific completed several key milestones.
We completed our RISE2020 initiative, which included the revitalization of our Central Pacific Plaza lobby, digital banking enhancement and other revenue and efficiency initiatives.
Additionally, as we continue our commitment to best-in-class digital banking technology in the first quarter, we implemented further upgrades and enhancements to our consumer online and mobile banking system.
And we launched our new small business online banking system.
Further, this quarter, we launched a new online platform for opening consumer deposit account and consumer term loan.
During the first quarter, Central Pacific stepped up again to support our small business community by originating over 3,600 PPP loans, totaling over $290 million.
We are proud of our hard working team of employees that have enabled us to accomplish these milestones and results.
We continue to be highly focused on building upon the successes and achieving our financial targets.
Our financial results for the first quarter were very strong with a highest quarterly pre-tax income since 2007.
We also continue to have solid asset quality, liquidity and capital.
Based on our strong results and financial position, our Board of Directors increased our quarterly cash dividend to $0.24 per share.
The state of Hawaii is making progress toward economic recovery.
Our unemployment rate declined to 9% in March, and while so elevated, is significantly down from its peak of 22% in April last year.
Our tourism industry is returning with our Safe Travel program running well and the potential for a vaccine passport program starting in the late summer.
Visitor arrivals have recently been averaging nearly 20,000 per day or about two third of pre-pandemic levels.
Real estate in Hawaii continues to be extremely strong with the medium price for a single-family home in Oahu hitting our record high of $950,000 in March.
The state of Hawaii continues to have a very low COVID infection rate with the lowest case rate in the nation on a per capita basis.
Our vaccination progress is also quite good with over 30% of our residents fully vaccinated, currently putting us the eighth high state in the nation.
With these strong stats, the states continue to safely reopen.
At Central Pacific, we are deemed in essential service and therefore our employees were given access to the COVID vaccination starting in March, and many are fully vaccinated at this point.
In the first quarter, our total loan portfolio increased by $174 million, primarily due to the new round of PPP loan originations.
Net of PPP loan originations, we grew our commercial construction, commercial mortgage and home equity portfolios, which was offset by declines in our commercial, industrial, residential mortgage and consumer loan portfolios.
The new round of PPP loan origination in Q1 required us to shift resources and attention to supporting our business customers with their second draw of PPP application.
In Q1, we processed over 3,600 PPP loans totaling over $290 million, which represented over 50% of the loans we funded in 2020.
Concurrently, our team continue to assist our existing PPP borrowers to apply for forgiveness from the SBA, resulting in approximately $100 million in paydowns in Q1.
To date, inclusive of forgiveness applications processed in 2020 and through March 31st, we have processed over 3,600 forgiveness applications, resulting in $234 million in PPP loan paydowns.
Our team continues to engage and support our small business customers to help meet their needs with our broader banking product and service offerings.
To date, we have expanded banking relationships with approximately 20% of the new to CPBs small business customers.
Total deposits during the first quarter increased by $410 million or about 8% sequential quarter, which was supported by PPP loan fundings and other government stimulus.
Additionally, our cost of total deposits declined by 3 basis points from the prior quarter and is now down just to 6 basis points.
As the economic recovery in Hawaii gains traction, our bankers will continue to engage and support our customers until a healthy pipeline of new business for the bank.
At March 31st, the loan portfolio totaled $5.1 billion with 53% consumer and 47% commercial.
Approximately 78% of the total loan portfolio, excluding PPP balances is real estate secured.
At quarter end, the total balance of loans on payment deferrals declined significantly by $80.7 million sequential quarter to $39.5 million or 0.9% of the total loan portfolio, excluding PPP balances.
Additional payment deferral were provided on residential loans and consumer loans.
We anticipate continuing to provide assistance through repayment plans and loan modifications over the next several months.
We had no payment deferrals in our commercial real estate and commercial and industrial loan portfolios at quarter end.
Total loans on payment deferrals further declined to $32.5 million as of April 21st.
During the quarter, criticized loans declined by $10.5 million sequential quarter to $181.7 million or 4% of the total loan portfolio, excluding PPP balances.
Special mentioned loans declined by $14.7 million to $127.8 million or 2.8% of the total loan portfolio, excluding PPP balances, and classified loans increased by $4.2 million to $53.9 million or 1.2% of the total loan portfolio, excluding PPP balances.
The decrease in special mentioned loans are primarily due to loans being upgraded as a result of improvements in our borrowers operating performance.
The increase in classified loans are primarily due to residential and consumer loans.
We continue to monitor our borrowers in the high-risk industries of food service and accommodation or $44 million is rated special mentioned, an $8 million is rated classified.
Approximately 27% of total special mentioned balances and 8% of total classified balances also received PPP loan.
Additional details on our high-risk industry loans and loans rated special mention and classified can be found on Slides 11, 13 and 14.
Overall, our asset quality remained strong and we expect to see continued improvement in our loan portfolio.
Net income for the first quarter was $18 million or $0.64 per diluted share.
Return on average assets in the first quarter was 1.07% and return on average equity was 13.07%.
Net interest income for the first quarter was $49.8 million, which decreased from the prior quarter, primarily due to less recognition of PPP fee income due to lower forgiveness.
Net interest income included $5.2 million in PPP net interest income and net loan fees compared to $6.3 million in the prior quarter.
At March 31, unearned net PPP fees for rounds one and two was $5.8 million and net fees for round three was $14.5 billion.
The net interest margin decreased to 3.19% in the first quarter compared to 3.32% in the prior quarter.
The decrease was due to the lower PPP fee income recognition as well as lower loan yields.
The net interest margin normalized for PPP was 3.12% in the first quarter compared to 3.17% in the prior quarter.
First quarter other operating income totaled $10.7 million compared to 14.1 million in the prior quarter.
The increase was primarily due to lower mortgage banking income of $2.5 million and lower income from bank-owned life insurance of $0.4 million.
Other operating expense for the first quarter was $37.8 million, which was a decrease of $6.8 million from carried through the prior quarter.
The prior quarter included one-time expenses totaling $5.9 million.
Additionally, in the current quarter, $0.8 million in PPP loan origination cost were deferred from salaries and benefits.
The efficiency ratio decreased to 62.5% in the first quarter compared to 68.2% in the prior quarter, primarily due to the one-time expenses in the prior quarter.
Net charge-offs in the first quarter totaled $0.7 million compared to net charge-offs of $1.8 million in the prior quarter.
At March 31st, our allowance for credit losses was $81.6 million or 1.80% of outstanding loans excluding the PPP loans.
This compares to 1.83% as of the prior quarter end.
In the first quarter, we reported a $0.8 million credit to the provision for credit losses due to improvements in the economic forecast utilized in our CECL methodology.
The effective tax rate was 23.2% in the first quarter, a slight decline from the prior quarter as we recognized the benefit for capital loss carry-backs.
Going forward, we expect the effective tax rate to be in the 24% to 26% range.
Our liquidity and capital positions remain strong and we continue to perform robust stress testing.
Finally, as Paul noted earlier, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share, which was an increase from the $0.23 in the prior quarter.
In summary, Central Pacific has a solid financial credit liquidity and capital position, and we continue to make positive forward progress on our strategies.
Further, we remain committed to providing support to our employees, customers and the community as we progress through the economic recovery.
At this time, we'll be happy to address any questions you may have.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
q1 earnings per share $0.64.
quarterly net interest income $49.8 million, compared to $47.8 million.


Prompt:
Human: We appreciate you joining us today to review our first quarter 2021 results.
We announced our financial results for the quarter yesterday.
As you saw, our strong financial results indicate we continued growing and operating effectively, serving our customers, identifying and finalizing new investment projects and keeping our employees as safe as possible.
As shown on Slide 2, participating with me on the call today are Jeff Householder, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Moriarty, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Policy and Risk Officer.
We also have other members of our management team joining us virtually.
We've had a very strong start to 2021 with continued profitable growth initiatives across our business units.
As shown on Slide 4, earnings per share from continuing operations was $1.96, an increase of $0.19 or 10.7% compared to our first quarter 2020 earnings per share of $1.77.
Gross margin increased more than $17 million over the first quarter of 2020.
Our results were driven by growth across the Company.
We also experienced increased consumer consumption resulting from weather that more closely resembled normal temperatures.
Some of the key margin drivers included: pipeline expansion projects; the Hurricane Michael regulatory settlement; organic natural gas distribution customer growth; contributions from Elkton Gas and Western Natural Gas; increased retail propane margins per gallon; and increased business in Marlin Gas Services.
As our General Counsel, Jim Moriarty, is fond of saying, we are the beneficiaries of geography.
We're fortunate to provide energy delivery services to communities that are experiencing significant growth.
[Technical Issues] initiatives that signal support for continued expansion of our systems in Florida.
In all of our service areas, the demand for natural gas, propane and electricity has never been higher.
We continued to see customer additions at a rate that's more than twice the national average.
In the past year, our utility distribution and customer count increased by 7.4%.
Growth opportunities to serve new customers was the primary driver of our capital investment in the first quarter.
We projected capital investments for 2021 at approximately $200 million, and we're on track to achieve that target.
Our first quarter capital investment totaled just under $49 million.
Earlier today, our Board of Directors have approved an annualized dividend payment of $1.92 per share, a $0.16 per share or 9.1% dividend increase.
The $0.16 per share increase in the annualized dividend closely aligns our five-year earnings growth rate of 9.4% through December 31, 2020, with our five-year dividend growth rate of 9.5%, as shown on Slide 5, including this most recent increase.
The Board's decision to raise the dividend reflects the Company's ongoing commitment to dividend growth that is supported by earnings growth, while maintaining a payout ratio that enables our healthy reinvestment of earnings for growth and ensures liquidity to fund operations.
Chesapeake Utilities has paid dividends to its shareholders without interruption for 60 years and has increased its annualized dividend every year since 2004.
I will add more about our continued growth initiatives and capital investment projects across our business units in just a few minutes.
Turning to Slide 6, net income from continuing operations for the quarter was $34.5 million compared to $29 million for the same quarter of last year.
This represents a growth in net income of $5.5 million or approximately 19%.
As I'm sure you all recall, during the fourth quarter of 2019, we exited the natural gas marketing business and recognized gains on the sales associated with that exit.
There were some minor lingering impact associated with the sales of this business both in 2020 and also the first quarter of 2021.
As a result, I will focus our discussion today largely on continuing operation.
EPS from continuing operations for the first quarter compared to the first quarter last year grew by $0.19 to $1.96 per share from $1.77, representing growth of just under 11%.
Growth initiatives and customer consumption drove the growth rate in net income by 19%, while the earnings per share growth rate of 11% is a result of the significant amount of equity we successfully issued in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 via the ATM program and our various stock plans.
Higher income was the result of increased performance across the enterprise, as Jeff mentioned earlier, coupled with continued expense management, business efficiencies, and standardization and collaboration across the Company.
Gross margin increased 17.1% compared to the first quarter last year, while operating income grew, because of these impacts, by 22.5%.
As Slide 7 also highlights, the growth in operating income was fairly split between the two segments, Regulated Energy and Unregulated Energy, for the quarter.
The key drivers of gross margin and expenses for quarter one compared to quarter one of last year are highlighted on Slide 8.
Gross margin net of specific expense attributes grew $0.65 per share after tax.
Higher earnings for the quarter reflect increased earnings across the business from: first, customer consumption, as Jeff mentioned primarily weather focused, was $0.26 per share; pipeline expansion projects another $0.11 per share; higher retail propane margins per gallon increased margin by $0.06 per share; organic growth in our natural gas distribution operations added $0.04 per share; contributions from recent acquisitions, including Elkton Gas and Western Natural Gas added $0.04 per share; the Hurricane Michael regulatory settlement also added $0.04 per share after associated depreciation and amortization of associated regulatory assets; and margin from Marlin increased by $0.03 per share; lastly, from our Florida GRIP Reliability and Infrastructure Program, we added $0.02 per share.
These increases were offset by the absence of property sales that occurred in the first quarter of last year, which represented $0.14 per share and the increased shares we added, that I just referred to, another $0.12 per share.
Given our opportunistic equity issuances over the past 12 months to take advantage of our strong equity market position.
Finally, depreciation, payroll and facilities expenses basically drove our earnings per share down by $0.20 per share because of the growth in our business.
I would like to spend a few minutes highlighting our capital spending thus far in 2021.
As you can see though first on Slide 9, the forecast for 2021 capital expenditures remains at our previously announced guidance of $175 million to $200 million.
Again, the investment is concentrated with approximately 80% budgeted in new regulated energy assets.
Year-to-date, as Jeff mentioned, we've invested just under $49 million in new capital investments.
So, what are some of the key 2021 projects?
They include our Delmarva Natural Gas Distribution expansion into Somerset County; Eastern Shore's Del-Mar Energy Pathway project, which is well under way; Florida's Western Palm Beach County; Florida expansion; our Florida GRIP program; and other natural gas distribution and transmission system projects.
In addition, we have expenditures for natural gas and electric system infrastructure improvement activities, Marlin Gas Services expansion of their CNG transport and their expansion into RNG and LNG, and technology system in support of our business transformation and other strategic initiatives and investments.
To support the growth we have experienced and ensure we have the capital capacity to fuel our future growth, we maintain a strong balance sheet with access to sufficient competitively priced capital.
As you can see on Slide 10, as of the end of March, total capitalization was $1.4 billion, comprised of: approximately 52% stockholders' equity, which is now $726 million; we had 37% in long-term debt at an average fixed rate of 3.62%; and $156 million in short-term debt under our revolver at an average interest rate of 1.2%.
Our recent equity issuance moved this further along within our target equity to total capitalization range.
We continue to utilize our traditional equity plans this year to issue stock and increase equity beyond our earnings retained and reinvest it in the business.
Chesapeake Utilities current market capitalization is approximately $2 billion.
As Beth noted, our capital capacity and the strength of our balance sheet continues to support growth.
We're very comfortable that our previously updated capital guidance remains on target.
Slide 11 is a reminder from earlier earnings calls of the key strategic initiatives that focus our project development and transaction interest.
As I noted a moment ago, we continue to experience significant demand for the energy services, provided by our existing business units.
Let me highlight a few of our major initiatives on Slide 12.
A significant portion of projected capital investment is devoted to expanding our existing core businesses.
We also have several relatively small-scale transmission pipeline projects under development that will potentially increase investment in this area.
Our propane business continues to grow and we will keep looking for acquisition opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.
And we see growth at Marlin Gas Services and in the rapidly developing renewable natural gas market that I'll discuss in greater detail in a few moments.
I'm running [Phonetic] this margin table showing key projects and initiatives, as shown on Slide 13, including pipeline expansion, CNG, RNG transportation, acquisitions and regulatory initiatives.
Key projects are expected to generate approximately $60 million and $67 million in gross margin for the years 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Pipeline expansions are expected to generate $6.7 million in incremental margin in 2021.
The Hurricane Michael proceeding settlement will again generate $11 million in gross margin in 2021, it remains at that level in 2022.
We're particularly pleased with the full integration of margin estimates of $5.8 million and $6.1 million for 2021 and 2022, respectively, from the acquisitions of Elkton Gas and Western Natural Gas.
In total, the incremental margin growth from these key projects and initiatives represents approximately $14.1 million for 2021 and $7.5 million for 2022.
As a reminder, we only include definitive projects in this table once they reach maturity, and do not include organic margin growth from our traditional distribution, customer additions, rate adjustments in our unregulated businesses, etc.
Accordingly, the RNG transportation margin, for example, will be adjusted as new projects are definitive and announced.
I realized that we've included a $1 million placeholder for RNG transportation on the slide for a couple of quarters, and have not yet disclosed the extent of anticipated RNG production-related investments.
These projects take considerable time to develop, especially related to securing full project financing.
That reminds me of the early days of solar and wind project financing.
However, there is positive movement on RNG project financing as interest increases among both financial and strategic participants, and we're hopeful that more details of the projects we're involved in can be made public over the next several weeks.
As a final note, the Auburndale Pipeline, $679,000 and Boulden acquisition $3.9 million became fully in service in 2020, so these ongoing mature projects have been removed from this table.
Over the past several quarters, we've outlined a number of renewable natural gas initiatives.
To begin, Slide 14 outlines the types of projects and ownership structures that we are actively assessing.
Let me provide an update on our progress for several of these initiatives.
We continue to work with CleanBay renewables on two utility scale poultry waste, RNG and organic fertilizer production facilities on the Delmarva Peninsula.
We previously described our existing agreement with CleanBay to own the gas processing equipment at the Westover Maryland facility, with an option to convert the equipment investment to equity in the total plant.
Last month, our Board Investment Committee authorized management to negotiate economic and governance terms with CleanBay with Chesapeake's equity participation in the project.
We hope to finalize an agreement with CleanBay and other equity providers over the coming weeks, and ensure that the anticipated project in-service date of Q4 2023 remains viable.
In addition to the Westover RNG facility, we're in discussions with CleanBay and other potential investors on a second Delmarva RNG facility, which is under development in Sussex County, Delaware.
Similar to the Westover plant, the Sussex facility will produce RNG at a utility scale along with organic fertilizer.
The property for the Sussex plant has been acquired and most land use permits have been approved.
Upon completion, the Westover and Sussex plants will be among the largest RNG facilities in the country.
As you may recall, we have several additional investments either under contract or in final negotiations associated with the Westover plant.
The Marlin Gas Transport agreement is in place, an interconnect agreement with our Eastern Shore Natural Gas transmission pipeline has been finalized, and the interconnect scheduled for construction in conjunction with the in-service date of the Westover plant.
Our Delmarva distribution business has finalized an agreement for off-take the [Indecipherable] RNG from Westover to purchase non-frac non-fossil RNG molecules for distributions to our -- distribution, excuse me, to our customers.
In addition to purchasing RNG from Westover's production, our Delmarva distribution operations will provide conventional gas supply service to Westover to support driving the organic fertilizer produced by the plant.
It's a lot of fertilizer and a lot of natural gas.
Westover will likely become our largest Maryland gas distribution customer.
Eastern Shore Natural Gas Del-Mar Energy Pathway expansion project currently under construction and our related distribution system expansion will bring our pipelines to within 1.5 mile of the Westover plant, and we will extend the distribution system to provide service.
We anticipate providing similar Marlin and conventional gas distribution services to the CleanBay Sussex site.
Chesapeake is exploring opportunities to develop renewable electric micro-grids at both the Westover and Sussex RNG sites.
We're working with a third party to potentially develop solar photovoltaic generation systems to serve the electric needs of the RNG facilities.
Property suitable for solar PV installation is owned respectively by the third party in close proximity to the Westover site, and similarly by Chesapeake close to the Sussex site.
Chesapeake has engaged Southern Company Energy Services and Southern's PowerSecure Company to assist in preliminary design and engineering of the solar PV systems, battery storage, protection protocols for the plants and related facilities to support in renewable electric micro-grid at each facility.
On Delmarva, we continue to work with the Bioenergy DevCo Company as they also move forward on development of a poultry waste RNG facility in Sussex County, Delaware.
The County Commission has recently approved the Bioenergy DevCo conditional land use permit.
Chesapeake will own and operate the gas processing equipment at the plant site.
We've ordered the processor from [Indecipherable], retained an EPC contractor and are in the process of finalizing design on various other components.
Our investment in the project is estimated at approximately $12 million, with in-service anticipated in late 2022.
Construction of our Savannah public compressed natural gas vehicle fueling and Marlin staging [Phonetic] facility continues to proceed on schedule for an October 2021 in service.
The station will be the larger CNG fueling facility on the East Coast, with capacity to fuel approximately 185 semi-trucks per day.
We've recently held a meeting with representatives of several Georgia-based trucking firms where interest in CNG was high and interest in the potential of providing renewable CNG at that facility was even higher.
We're working on several RNG marketers along with exploring opportunities to develop regional CNG production to serve the Savannah station.
Speaking of Marlin, we're just wrapping up an eight-month deployment to serve the City of Miami transit bus fleet.
At peak, we were fueling 160 CNG buses a day before the permanent pipeline and CNG fueling facilities were put in place.
Marlin CNG Service enabled early delivery of the buses and an earlier than anticipated significant reduction in diesel emissions.
Marlin has also taken delivery of its new four-stage compressor unit.
The compressor enables Marlin to offer a methane capture service to pipelines and utilities that need to remove a pipeline segment from service to provide maintenance or system integrity work.
Rather than releasing the methane to the atmosphere, Marlin can receive the gas at almost any line pressure, compress it to CNG pressures, and transfer it to a tanker.
The gas can then be reintroduced into another point on the pipeline system.
Marlin also taken delivery of its first four LNG tankers.
The increased capacity of LNG transport provides an expanded array of services for customers requiring larger gas quantities.
And finally, we're continuing our fleet conversion at Marlin on diesel fuel to compressed natural gas.
Eight new CNG tractor cabs will be delivered in July.
I mentioned in our fourth quarter call that we were supporting a hydrogen research project proposed to the Department of Energy by Solar Turbines.
We've offered our Eight Flags CHP turbine on Amelia Island as a test site and we're also working with several of our existing industrial customers to identify opportunities for hydrogen blends at their facilities.
We're just at the beginning stages of gaining a better understanding of hydrogen use from a safety operations impact, measurement, availability and the effects on downstream customer equipment.
It is great to be with you today.
I would like to begin by providing an update on certain legislative actions in Florida.
As shown on Slide 15, the energy pre-emption bill is key legislation that maintains consumer choice toward the ongoing availability and use of natural gas as an affordable, reliable and resilient energy resource.
Natural gas will be available to meet increasing customer demand.
In addition, we sponsored a renewable energy bill, which is cleared both chambers of the Florida Legislature, and is before the governor for signature.
This bill defines biogas, renewable natural gas.
It supports RNG's use in transportation, electric generation, and injection into gas distribution systems.
The bill also authorizes the PSC to approve cost recovery for RNG contracts that exceed market rates under certain conditions.
When signed by the governor, Florida will join a dozen other states that have endorsed the vibrant role of natural gas in meeting the growing energy needs of this nation.
We are proud of our governmental affairs team for driving and supporting such important legislation within the state of Florida to ensure natural gas is available to meet customer demand first and foremost, and to provide a mechanism for renewable natural gas via viable part of the natural gas portfolio throughout the state.
We're also at various stages in regards to working on similar legislation in our other jurisdictions, and we'll keep you apprised of future activities.
As shown on Slide 16, Chesapeake Utilities continues to build on our bedrock commitment to ESG, a focus on environmental stewardship, dedication to social justice, and sound governance principles.
Our recognition as a top workplace for the ninth consecutive year in the areas we serve, as well as our recognition in the top workplace inaugural awards, speaks volumes about our diverse and inclusive culture, one which continues to promote the growth and development of our employees and the active engagement of our communities.
Strong corporate governance has been essential to creating long-term value and safeguarding our commitments to all stakeholders.
Our Board and its committees have adopted guidelines and other policies that have provided a framework for ongoing effective governance.
Active and informed engagement, which is embedded in our people, beginning with our Board of Directors and extending throughout the Company, could not be more important as we continue together to chart the road ahead.
Strong corporate governance also includes listening to our stockholders and monitoring the vote results annually.
Based on this year's results, over 90% of the shares voted were in favor of the proposals presented before them.
This demonstrates our stockholders' continuing strong support of the performance of the Company and our future strategy.
Our responsibility to operate in a safe and environmentally friendly manner furthers our stewardship and facilitates sustainable practices across our organization.
Our team, with input from the Board of Directors, discusses key risks and mitigating factors identified as part of our comprehensive Enterprise Risk Management program.
Embedded within our ERM program, our ESG-related focus areas and emerging risks.
Turning to Slide 17, in regards to safety, we are committed to providing a safe workplace for employees and to making safety a priority in our interactions with each other, our customers, and the communities we serve.
The achievement of superior safety performance is an important strategic initiative, both in the short term and the long term.
Safety is not only our top priority and our first strategic objective, it is at the center of who we are.
One of our latest accomplishments in this regard is the completion of our safety town facility in Dover, Delaware, to provide both hands-on and classroom training for our operations technicians.
We are also diligently working on our inaugural Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability report, which will be made available during 2021.
There, we will be providing additional information and insights on our long-standing ESG stewardship.
We are committed to providing a work environment that values diversity and background, experiences, and skillset of all our employees as highlighted on Slide 18.
In continuing our bedrock commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, or EDI Council, supports all our employees, embracing and sharing their diverse experiences and backgrounds with the mission to help improve the communities we serve and to make us a better company.
The EDI Council is central to who we are and who we want to be, and we will further enhance the collaboration around our workplace culture that is the engine driving our business.
The EDI Council was extremely busy in 2020, fostering the rollout of five employee resource groups throughout the Company, as shown on Slide 18.
We are excited about what these teams have done in just a short amount of time and look forward to their increasing role as well as the creation of other ERGs.
The talent, skills and ideas that these groups have brought to the forefront have been inspiring and provide channels for our employees to feel inclusive and supported by the Company.
We work hard every day to also ensure that the communities we serve continue receiving the value and benefits of clean, plentiful, affordable and resilient energy delivery services, so that no one is left behind.
We continue to undertake various internal actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including completion of our pipeline replacement program and improved detection technology at our compressor stations.
We are also working with our suppliers and contractors to encourage their environmental efforts.
We are also excited about the projects under way by our diverse and engaged teams to reduce the carbon footprint of the communities we serve, including conservation programs that promote high efficiency appliances and technical assistance for large volume customers to identify emission reduction opportunities.
Our commitment remains steadfast to take the steps necessary to deliver energy where and when it is needed while continuing to advance our environmental stewardship.
Our announced projects in RNG are just the beginning.
They are a very clear example of the lowering of the carbon footprint and also ensuring we do our best to ensure a more sustainable future for our local communities.
While we're beginning fiscal year of 2021 with very positive financial performance, as indicated by our earnings-per-share growth, capital investments, key projects and initiatives, and our dividend growth, as you can see on Slides 19 and 20, we're affirming our five-year capital guidance for the period of 2021 to 2025 at $750 million to $1 billion.
I'm excited that our latest strategic plan update gives us a high degree of confidence that we have significant investment opportunities ahead of us.
That confidence in our growth opportunities has enabled us to extend and expand our capital guidance.
Our 2025 earnings per share guidance range of $6.05 to $6.25 per share represents an average earnings per share growth of approximately 10% from our initiation of guidance at the end of 2017.
We believe natural gas is a key component to the country's long-term energy strategy.
We also believe that the markets we serve value the energy services we deliver; whether natural gas or propane or electricity, our customers have spoken loudly in this regard.
At the same time, we have opportunities given our business mix expertise and strategic approach to capitalize on new renewable energy opportunities that advance us toward a more sustainable future.
We're committed to our growth strategy.
Focused on delivering top quartile performance, including shareholder return, which has exceeded 16% compound annual growth for each period, one, three, five, 10 and 20 years through April 30, 2021.
Our investment proposition is based upon a commitment to superior performance and we outlined that on Slide 21.
Our foundation, our financial objectives and targets, as well as the initiatives and strategies we pursue are in support of achieving this level of performance.
We take great pride in the work done on the front lines and our ongoing commitment to identifying and delivering innovative solutions for the delivery of clean, reliable and safe energy to our customers.
And we can now address any questions you may have.
 Assistant:

Chosen response: q1 earnings per share $1.96 from continuing operations.


Prompt:
Human: The theme for our precall music today was Camden Cares.
For many years, our Camden Cares initiatives have provided assistance to people in need among Camden's family or Camden residents as well as the communities where we live and work.
Our music today included a song by the late rate Bill Withers with this great wisdom.
"lean on me, when you're not strong, I'll be your friend.
I'll help you carry on, for it won't be long till I'm going to need somebody to lean on".
These words capture the spirit of all that our Camden associates do for others in need under our Camden Cares banner.
Camden's why, our purpose is to improve the lives of our teammates, customers and our shareholders one experience at a time.
At the outset of the pandemic, it was clear that the disruption from COVID-19 was going to be massive and leave millions needing someone to lean on.
We encouraged our teams to view the widespread chaos as an opportunity to go big on our pledge to improve people's lives, one experience at a time.
And not surprisingly, team Camden responded in truly extraordinary ways that we captured in this brief video.
We are pleased to report another very strong quarter of results and another raise to our 2021 earnings guidance.
We are seeing high levels of rent growth along with sustained occupancy levels over 97% for our portfolio which bodes well for the remainder of the year.
Camden is always focused on operating in markets with high employment and population growth and strong migration patterns, and this strategy has clearly paid off as evidenced by the ULI PwC report that was issued for 2021 real estate trends at the ULI Fall Conference in Chicago last week.
Camden's markets -- eight of Camden's markets ranked in the top 10 for 2022 investor demand.
We're very fortunate today to be in a really strong apartment market and in the right markets.
So at this point, I will go ahead and turn over the call to Keith Oden.
Same property revenue growth exceeded expectations yet again at 5.1% for the quarter and was positive in all markets, both year-over-year and sequentially.
We posted double-digit growth in Phoenix and South Florida, both at 10.1%, followed by Tampa at 9.5%.
Year-to-date, same-property revenue growth is 2.9%, and we expect strong performance in the fourth quarter across our portfolio, resulting in our revised 2021 guidance range of 4% to 4.5% for full year revenue growth.
New lease and renewal gains are still strong with double-digit growth posted in both categories.
For 3Q '21, signed new leases were 19.8% and renewals were 12.1% for a blended rate of 16% flat.
For leases, which were signed earlier and became effective during the third quarter, new lease growth was 16.6% with renewals at 8.5% for a blended rate of 12.2%.
October 2021 remained strong with signed new leases trending at 18.3%, renewals at 13.8% and a blended rate of 16.5%.
Renewal offers for November and December were sent out with an average increase of 15% to 16%.
Occupancy has also been very strong and was 97.3% for the third quarter of '21 and is still holding at 97.3% for October to date.
Net turnover remains low at 47% for the third quarter of '21 versus 49% in the third quarter of last year.
And move-outs to home purchases moderated from 17.7% in the second quarter of '21 to 15% in the third quarter of '21, trending below our long-term average of about 18%.
It's worth noting that these strong results have continued into what has historically been a seasonally weaker period for our portfolio.
This marks our third straight quarter in which we increased our same-property NOI and FFO per share guidance.
Our team is focused on finishing the year strong, which will position us for another solid year in 2022.
Before I move on to our financial results and guidance, a brief update on our recent real estate activities.
During the third quarter of 2021, we purchased Camden Central, a recently constructed 368 unit, 15-story community in St. Petersburg, Florida.
And subsequent to quarter end, we purchased Camden Greenville, a recently constructed 558 unit mid-rise community in Dallas.
The combined purchase price for these two acquisitions is approximately $342 million and both assets were purchased at just under a 4% yield.
Also during the quarter, we stabilized Camden Downtown, a 271 unit, $132 million new development in Houston.
And subsequent to quarter end, we stabilized ahead of schedule Camden North End II, a 343-unit, $79 million new development in Phoenix.
Additionally, during the quarter, we completed construction on Camden Lake Eola, a $125 million new development in Orlando.
Subsequent to quarter end, we purchased five acres of land in Denver for future development purposes.
On the financing side, during the quarter, we issued approximately $222 million of shares under our existing ATM program.
We used the proceeds of the issuance to fund in part the previously discussed acquisitions.
Turning to financial results.
Last night, we reported funds from operations for the third quarter of 2021 of $142.2 million or $1.36 per share, exceeding the midpoint of our guidance range by $0.03 per share, which resulted primarily from approximately $0.01 in higher same-store NOI, resulting from $0.02 of higher revenue driven by higher rental rates, higher occupancy and lower bad debt, partially offset by $0.01 of higher operating expenses entirely driven by higher-than-anticipated amounts of self-insured expenses.
-- approximately $0.015 and better-than-anticipated results from our non-same-store development and acquisition communities and approximately $0.01 from the timing of our third quarter acquisition.
This $0.035 aggregate outperformance was partially offset by $0.005 impact from our higher share count resulting from our recent ATM activity.
Last night, based upon our year-to-date operating performance and our expectations for the remainder of the year, we also updated and revised our 2021 full year same-store guidance.
Taking into consideration our continued significant improvement in new leases, renewals and occupancy and our resulting expectations for the remainder of the year, we have increased the midpoint of our full year same-store revenue guidance from 3.75% to 4.25%.
And we have increased the midpoint of our full year same-store NOI guidance from 3.75% to 4.5%.
We are maintaining the midpoint of our same-store expense guidance at 3.75% as the higher-than-expected third quarter insurance expenses are anticipated to be entirely offset by lower-than-expected property tax expenses in the fourth quarter.
We are now anticipating that our full year property tax growth rate will be approximately 1.6%, which includes $1.8 million of property tax refunds anticipated in the fourth quarter.
Our 4.25% same-store revenue growth assumption is based upon occupancy averaging approximately 97% for the remainder of the year with the blend of new lease and renewals averaging approximately 16%.
Last night, we also increased the midpoint of our full year 2021 FFO guidance by $0.10 per share.
Our new 2021 FFO guidance is $5.34 to $5.40 with the midpoint of $5.37 per share.
This $0.10 per share increase results from -- are anticipated 75 basis points or approximately $0.05 increase in 2021 same-store operating results, $0.01 of this increase already occurred in the third quarter, an approximate $0.05 increase from our non-same-store development and acquisition communities, of which $0.025 already occurred in the third quarter and an approximate $0.02 increase in FFO from later and lower-than-anticipated fourth quarter disposition activities.
We now anticipate approximately $110 million of dispositions in early November and approximately $220 million of dispositions in early December as compared to our previous expectations of $450 million of dispositions, all occurring in early November.
This $0.12 aggregate increase in FFO is partially offset by an approximate $0.02 impact from our third quarter ATM activity.
Last night, we also provided earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2021.
We expect FFO per share for the fourth quarter to be within the range of $1.46 to $1.52.
The midpoint of $1.49 represents $0.13 per share improvement from the third quarter, which is anticipated to result from an $0.11 per share or approximate 7.5% expected sequential increase in same-store NOI, driven by both a 2.5% or $0.055 per share sequential increase in same-store revenue, resulting primarily from higher rental rates and a 6.5% decrease in sequential same-store expenses driven primarily by $0.025 fourth quarter decrease in property taxes, combined with a fourth quarter, $0.015 decrease in property insurance expenses and $0.015 third to fourth quarter seasonal decrease in utility, repair and maintenance, unit turnover and personnel expenses, a $0.03 per share increase in NOI from our development communities in lease-up and our nonsame-store communities and $0.02 per share increase in FFO resulting from the full quarter contribution of our recent acquisitions.
This aggregate $0.16 increase is partially offset by $0.015 decrease in NOI from our planned fourth quarter disposition activities and $0.015 per share incremental impact from our third quarter ATM activity.
Our balance sheet remains strong with net debt-to-EBITDA at 4.4 times and a total fixed charge coverage ratio at 5.8 times.
As of today, we have approximately $1.1 billion of liquidity, comprised of approximately $200 million in cash and cash equivalents and no amounts outstanding under our $900 million unsecured credit facility.
At quarter end, we had $242 million left to spend over the next three years under our existing development pipeline.
At this time, we will open the call up to questions.
 Assistant:

Chosen response:
qtrly ffo per share $1.36.
sees q4 ffo per share $1.46 - $1.52.