Kestra Medical Technologies (KMTS) 2027财年第一季度业绩电话会议：营收增长60%，上调业绩指引lg...

Kestra Medical Technologies (NASDAQ: KMTS) 公布 2027 财年第一季度营收增长强劲，毛利率进一步扩大。管理层上调了全年营收指引，理由是处方量增长、支付方准入改善以及收入循环管理 (RCM) 表现更强。

核心要点

• 在 WCD 市场拓展、抢占竞争对手份额以及网络内患者比例提高的支撑下，2027 财年第一季度营收同比增长 60% 至 3100 万美元。
• 毛利率达到 56.5%，高于去年同期的 45.7%，环比提升 175 个基点。这标志着毛利率实现连续第 11 个季度环比扩大。
• 管理层将 2027 财年营收指引从 1.37 亿美元上调至 1.41 亿美元，意味着较 2026 财年增长 48%。
• Kestra 将其长期毛利率目标从 70% 上调至 75% 左右的区间，管理层预计将在未来二至三年内达到这一目标。
• 按 GAAP 计，净亏损从 2580 万美元扩大至 4410 万美元；调整后 EBITDA 亏损从 1940 万美元扩大至 2400 万美元。
• 管理层估计 Kestra 在最新季度占据美国 WCD 市场约 15% 的份额，并预计随着商业团队的扩充，市场份额将进一步提升。

核心财务数据

业务与运营表现

营收受益于 Kestra 租赁模式三大核心驱动因素的改善：处方履约率、开单率和回款率。管理层表示，从历史来看，处方量增速比营收增速低几个百分点，预计这一关系在 2027 财年仍将持续。

具有网络内福利的患者佩戴适配比例已从 Kestra IPO 时的约 70% 上升至 80% 出头的区间。随着公司签署更多支付方合同，预计将进一步改善。较高的网络内参与度有助于提升每位患者带来的营收、理赔转化率、回款率和毛利率。

Kestra 还报告称，在大约六个月前加入联邦供应目录（Federal Supply Schedule）后，在美国退伍军人事务部（VA）网络内的业务量不断增加。VA 覆盖了 900 万名会员，其中近一半年龄在 65 岁以上。

一家大型全国性支付方将 WCD 的报销范围扩大至接受指南指导药物治疗的非缺血性患者。管理层表示，典型 WCD 患者群体中有超过 60% 属于非缺血性患者，并称该政策调整表明近期临床数据正在影响报销决策。

商业增长来自于对现有客户的深入渗透以及向新区域的拓展。Kestra 正在拆分部分高业务量的区域，并增加临床客户专家。管理层表示，在加大招聘和培训投资后，新销售代表的业务爬坡速度更快。

根据 Kestra 和现有主要竞争对手的业绩，管理层估计在截至 2026 年 7 月的 12 个月内，WCD 市场按美元价值计增长了约 14%。公司估计其最新在美国的市场份额约为 15%。

Kestra 还在患者支持、预先授权、报销、回款和销售生产力等领域投资 AI 和自动化。管理层预计在 2027 财年将出现初步的费用效益，在 2028 和 2029 财年将产生更显著的影响。

产品研发包括与 Biobeat Technologies 合作，将无创血压监测整合到 Assure 平台中。Kestra 还在完成一项后期研发项目，旨在增加目前 WCD 领域尚不具备的功能。管理层预计将在下季度提供更多细节。

管理层指引

Kestra 将 2027 财年营收指引从 1.37 亿美元上调至 1.41 亿美元。新展望代表着 48% 的同比增长。

管理层预计 2027 财年下半年的增长将快于上半年。预期的加速部分取决于 2026 财年末和 2027 财年初招聘的销售代表的生产力提升，以及更深入的客户渗透和新客户激活。

公司预计 2027 财年 GAAP 营业费用约为 2.2 亿美元，增长约 20%。管理层表示，在第一季度与 Biobeat 及后期开发项目相关的高额投资之后，研发支出应恢复至历史水平。

预计毛利率在未来几个季度将稳步持续上升。管理层维持对 2027 财年毛利率提升约 700 个基点的预期，并表示 2029 财年全年毛利率可能达到 70%，其中下半年将超过 70%。其更广泛的目标是在二至三年内将毛利率提升至 75% 左右。

管理层预计在整个 2027 财年，现金消耗将环比下降。近期公布的 2 亿美元定期贷款额度为商业投资及设备舰队拓展提供了额外的流动性。

风险与关注点

• Kestra 仍处于亏损状态，本季度 GAAP 净亏损为 4410 万美元，经营活动所用现金为 3230 万美元。
• 2027 财年营收展望偏向于下半年更快的增长，这增加了销售代表业务爬坡和区域生产力的重要性。
• 尽管网络内覆盖有所改善，但管理层指出，美国拥有超过 3000 家支付方，仍有大量的区域和地方性合同有待争取。
• AI、自动化和后期研发项目的推进时机和影响仍取决于执行情况。管理层预计较大的自动化效益主要出现在 2028 财年和 2029 财年。
• 管理层表示，尽管近期增速加快，但未来 WCD 市场的增长节奏仍难以预测。

分析师问答要点

分析师密切关注上调后的营收展望及季度节奏。管理层将其信心归因于处方量、支付方覆盖、单次佩戴营收以及销售团队生产力的良好趋势。管理层重申下半年表现应强于上半年。

在毛利率方面，管理层指出了实现 75% 左右更高目标的三大主要驱动因素：单次佩戴成本降低、基于采购量的供应商成本节省，以及随着网络内比例提升带来的单次佩戴营收提高。

关于市场份额，管理层表示 Kestra 的进展超出了其内部长期假设。预计商业拓展、客户渗透和持续的产品创新将带来进一步的份额提升。

管理层拒绝量化第一季度有多少营收来自前期处方，也未将营收贡献按业务量和单次佩戴营收进行拆分。管理层表示，将在财年结束时提供年度处方和佩戴数据。

在 AI 投资方面，管理层强调销售生产力是实现盈利的关键途径。计划中的工具旨在优化区域优先级划定、减少行政工作，并在不按比例增加员工人数的情况下提高每名销售代表的患者佩戴量。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

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完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Kestra Medical Technologies First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Conference Call. This conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session following prepared remarks from management. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Neil Bhalodkar, Vice President of Investor Relations, for introductory comments.

Neil Bhalodkar

Thank you, Latif. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining Kestra's First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Call. With me today are Brian Webster, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Vaseem Mahboob, Chief Financial Officer.

This call includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements made on this call that do not relate to matters of historical facts should be considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on Kestra's current expectations, forecasts and assumptions which are subject to current uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results could differ materially from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements due to various factors.

Please review Kestra's most recent filings with the SEC, particularly the risk factors described in our Form 10-K for additional information. Any forward-looking statements provided during this call, including projections of future performance, are based on management's expectations as of today. Kestra undertakes no obligation to update these statements, except as required by applicable law. During today's call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and are not a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation of these measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

With that, I will turn the call over to Brian.

Brian Webster

Thanks, Neil. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call. We're excited to discuss the strong financial performance we had in the first quarter and the continued progress we are making on our key operational objectives.

I'd like to begin though with a reminder of the purpose behind our work that is providing innovative, intuitive medical technologies that protect and support at-risk patients. That mission guides both the technology we create and the experience we deliver, helping patients remain engaged, connected and protected throughout their care.

One patient's experience this quarter demonstrates how those forms of protection work together. The patient was prescribed the Assure WCD for protection during the high-risk period between removal of his implanted defibrillator and a scheduled lead extraction. Shortly after fitting, the Assure System recorded more than 120 diverted therapies in 1 night, prompting immediate outreach from our heart alert services team.

The team learned the patient was driving alone through rural Utah with his 2 dogs. He initially resisted seeking care. Heart alert services remained in close contact until he agreed to go to the nearest emergency department. The team sent his clinical reports ahead to the support team at the emergency department. Upon arrival, clinicians determined he needed to be airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital for a specialized electrophysiology care.

After 8 days in hospital, he underwent a successful lead extraction and received a replacement device. This case demonstrates the differentiated value of our integrated care model. Assure provided continuous protection and clinical insight while heart alert services turned that insight into action, moving a patient from unseen risk to urgent specialized care, in this case, across state lines. This is the cardiac recovery system platform in action, therapeutic protection, clinical insight and responsive support working together when it matters most.

I would now like to turn to our recent financial performance. In the first quarter, we continued to reach more patients at risk of dangerous cardiac arrhythmias, while delivering another quarter of strong financial performance. Revenue advanced sequentially off a strong fourth quarter and grew 60% year-over-year to $31 million. Gross margin of 56.5% increased over 10 points year-over-year and 175 basis points sequentially. This was the 11th quarter in a row of sequential gross margin expansion, demonstrating the attractive unit economics and volume leverage of our business model.

Based on the progress to date, we are increasingly confident that Kestra can achieve mid-70s gross margin percentage in the next few years. This represents a meaningful increase from our previously communicated target of 70%. Importantly though, Kestra is not simply a gross margin story. With strong revenue growth and gross margin expansion, we are enhancing the operating leverage in our business. This leverage supports investments we are making in key growth drivers that we believe will yield significant earnings power and long-term value for Kestra and its stakeholders in the years ahead.

We have been deliberately building towards this point. For example, we have invested in building the foundational technology stack needed to scale the business, including cloud platforms, enterprise data capabilities, workflow automation and system iteration layers. Those investments are now enabling the next phase of value creation through AI and automation. Our AI road map is highly disciplined in firmly grounded and measurable business outcomes. Every initiative is linked to a specific operating KPI and evaluated based on its ability to improve growth, efficiency or enhance scalability.

We are initially prioritizing 3 areas where we believe AI and automation can create significant value. First, patient support and adherence, where AI-powered patient support agents and automated outreach can help maintain patient engagement and wear compliance while increasing the productivity of the Kestra team supporting a rapidly growing patient base. Second, revenue access and collections, we're automating intake, prior authorization and reimbursement workflows can improve our fittings to claim conversion and collections, while materially reducing administrative effort.

And third, commercial demand acceleration, where AI assist our sales representatives with call preparation, follow-up, account prioritization and clinical documentation. The objective here is straightforward: increased rep productivity as measured by patient fittings per rep without requiring a proportional increase in headcount. Together, these initiatives demonstrate the leverage in the technology foundation we have built and how AI and automation can improve key operating metrics while meeting the operating expense curve as transaction volumes continue to grow.

Turning to our commercial organization. Our territory managers are continuing to win share in competitive accounts, while simultaneously expanding the WCD market as prescribers increasingly recognize the benefits of protecting more patients than they have historically. Our newest reps are ramping faster than prior cohorts, while our legacy reps continue to generate strong growth and same-store sales. In some of our largest markets, we have been deliberate and strategic about splitting high-volume platinum territories to go deeper and reach more prescribers in existing accounts.

We are finding that when we split a territory and add a clinical account specialists, more feet on the ground closer to the customer compound growth. It's how we ultimately turn a foothold into a fully penetrated account and put both territories on a path to becoming high-volume platinum territories. This is a powerful model for growth and operating leverage. Higher territory manager productivity is a meaningful driver of operating leverage and also positions us to effectively capitalize on a significant growth opportunity ahead of us, given how underpenetrated the WCD category remains.

As we have previously noted, despite the overwhelming evidence of external defibrillation shock is effective at terminating dangerous cardiac rhythms, WCD therapy remains underutilized. In 2025, 6 out of 7 patients that were indicated for WCD were not protected by one. This statistic speaks to the enormous potential in front of us. The innovation and clinical evidence we have brought to the category is beginning to change this. Based on our financials and those of the incumbent, the WCD market grew approximately 14% on a dollar basis in the 12 months ended July of 2026. We believe we are still in the early innings of market expansion and we see this category growing into a multibillion dollar market in the years ahead.

Turning to market access. We continue to bring more payers in network while also making progress on improving our RCM capabilities. At the time of our IPO 18 months ago, approximately 70% of our fittings were for patients with in-network benefits. This figure is down in the low 80s, and we expect this to increment higher in our FY '27 as we signed new contracts in target markets. Higher in-network mix meaningfully increases our team's efficiency and positively impacts all of our RCM metrics, including revenue per patient.

About 6 months ago, we announced that Kestra had been added to the Federal Supply Schedule for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. As a reminder, the VA is the largest integrated health care network in the U.S. and covers 9 million members. Nearly 50% of whom are over the age of 65. Over the last 6 months, we have seen a steady increase in volumes at the VA and still have a significant multiyear opportunity to grow our share within these facilities. It is important to note that there are over 3,000 payers in the U.S. So there is still a long tail of regional and local payers we are working to bring under contract.

Of note, this month, a significant national payer has expanded their coverage to non-ischemic patients undergoing guideline-directed medical therapy. This is the first time this large payer has covered both the ischemic and non-ischemic patients. This is significant since over 60% of the typical WCD populations are non-ischemic. We believe this is a strong signal that the recent clinical evidence is having an impact on payer policies or WCDs. Innovation also continues to be a central area of focus and investment for Kestra. We are progressing as planned with our Biobeat Technologies partnership to integrate noninvasive blood pressure monitoring into the Assure platform.

In addition, our team is completing an exciting late-stage R&D project intended to further extend our clinical advantage with the performance of the Assure System and also bring new first-in-category capabilities to the market. We expect to discuss those further in the next quarter. Over time, we believe innovation will help us accelerate market growth and win additional market share by further differentiating our product from the incumbent. And more importantly, by providing additional clinical value and diagnostic insights to physicians, we believe it will result in them prescribing WCDs to more of their patients that heretofore have gone unprotected.

In conclusion, the fundamentals of Kestra's story have never been stronger. Our product differentiation is clear and compelling. The WCD market is expanding rapidly with tremendous room for further penetration. Kestra continues to deliver top-tier medtech revenue growth. Gross margin has expanded consistently and meaningful opportunity remains. We have a strong balance sheet and our execution continues to be crisp and the valuation we have built positions Kestra for strong and durable growth for years to come. I'd like to thank our incredible team in the field and also here at the home office in Kirkland for their passion and commitment to the customer mission.

I will now turn it over to Vaseem who will discuss first quarter financial results in more detail and provide our updated fiscal year 2027 revenue guidance. Vaseem?

Vaseem Mahboob

Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. We had a strong financial performance across the board in the first quarter. Total revenue was $31 million, an increase of 60% compared to the prior year period. Revenue growth was driven by continued WCD market expansion, competitive share gains, a higher mix of in-network patients and ongoing improvements in our revenue cycle management capabilities.

We continue to see improvements in all 3 key drivers of our revenue model, our prescription fill rate, our bill rate and our collections performance. As we continue to bring more players in network, we expect to see benefits in revenue growth, gross margin and our profitability profile. As Brian noted in his prepared remarks, we are investing in rev cycle AI tools and other automation projects that we believe will drive significant operating leverage as we scale the business.

Turning to gross margin. Our gross margin increased to 56.5% in the first quarter versus 45.7% in the prior year period. This continued expansion in our gross margin was driven by attractive unit economics inherent in Kestra's business model, an increase in revenue per fit from more in-network patients and a decline in cost per fit driven by the volume leverage and execution of cost-improvement projects. In the quarters ahead, we expect to see steady and consistent increases in our gross margin as our rental model benefits from higher fits. We are confident in our ability to achieve a mid-70% margin in the next few years, which is higher than our prior outlook of 70% gross margins.

GAAP operating expenses were $55.2 million in the first quarter compared to $37.7 million in the prior year period. Included in GAAP operating expense are $1.4 million of nonrecurring items related to a Biobeat milestone payment and onetime professional fees related to a key R&D project that Brian noted, we will be discussing in detail in the next quarter. Excluding nonrecurring costs and stock-based compensation, operating expenses were $44.2 million in the first quarter compared to $30.3 million in the prior year period. The increase was primarily attributable to growth in expenses related to the company's commercial expansion and accelerated investment in our late-stage R&D programs.

GAAP net loss was $44.1 million in the first quarter compared to a GAAP net loss of $25.8 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $24 million in the first quarter compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $19.4 million in the prior year period. Our cash used from operating activities in the first quarter was $32.3 million. As expected, our Q1 cash burn was higher on a sequential basis driven by payout of our company-wide bonus and timing of payments to suppliers. We expect to burn -- we expect our burn to decline sequentially throughout fiscal year 2027, as it did in fiscal year 2026.

In July, we announced a new $200 million term loan facility. This nondilutive financing was a great outcome from Kestra. It fortifies our balance sheet, reduces our cost of capital and provides a significant financial flexibility to invest in our commercial strategies and expand our fleet to drive durable best-in-class growth for years to come. Cash, cash equivalents and investments totaling $245 million as of July 31. Including unused committed availability under our term loan agreement, Kestra has a liquidity of approximately $320 million.

In summary, we continue to deliver top-tier medtech revenue growth while significantly expanding our gross margins and refining our balance sheet. Our investments in the field team, RCM capabilities and R&D initiatives position Kestra to capitalize on the large and growing WCD market opportunity and drive durable revenue for years to come. And while we are continuing to invest in our growth strategy in fiscal year 2027, you will see Kestra drive increasing levels of operating leverage each year going forward. For these reasons, we have high visibility and confidence in our path to profitability over the next few years.

I will now provide updated fiscal year 2027 revenue guidance. We expect revenue of $141 million, representing growth of 48% compared to fiscal year 2026. This compares to prior fiscal year 2027 revenue guidance of $137 million. We expect fittings growth to be driven by deeper penetration within existing accounts and the activation of new accounts as we invest in the regional coverage. We expect growth in revenue per fit to be driven by a higher mix of in-network patients and continued investments in our revenue cycle management capabilities.

With that, operator, we have concluded our prepared remarks and are ready to proceed to the Q&A portion of the call. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Larry Biegelsen of Wells Fargo.

分析师问答

Larry Biegelsen

Congrats on the nice start to the year here. Brian or Vaseem, I wanted to ask about the guidance and the cadence. So you beat by about $2 million, raised by about $4 million. So my question is what gave you the confidence to raise by more than the beat this quarter? And how should we think about the cadence for the rest of the year? I think you said on the last call, you expect an acceleration in the second half due to some of the reps you hired last year. And I had one follow-up.

Vaseem Mahboob

Yes. Larry, thanks for the question. Our fiscal year 2027 guidance of $141 million implies a 48% growth, which is among the highest in small-cap med tech. Our revenue growth has historically been driven by prescription volume growth, in-network mix and RCM improvements and the growth of our field team. These KPIs are all tracking in the right direction and give us a lot of confidence in increasing our guidance to 48% growth in fiscal year 2027. Higher prescriptions will be driven by winning new accounts, going deeper in existing accounts and market expansion. We expect revenue per fit to benefit from higher in-network mix as we continue to make progress on payer coverage. And as we said last year, same time, we do expect those reps to ramp up here in the second half of the year. So we expect the second half to be faster than the first half.

Larry Biegelsen

That's helpful. And just for my follow-up, Brian, on the pipeline, I guess, update on Biobeat and any milestones. And I guess I've got to try to ask about this new pipeline product. Just any color on kind of where your focus? Is it the patient experience, the algorithm, new features? And how far away from market? Is this anything you could share?

Brian Webster

Yes. I appreciate the question. We will -- we do expect to be able to talk about it in more depth over the next quarter. We're not quite ready to do that yet. But I will say that what we expect to do with the new technology is leverage the platform that we've developed and to extend that platform give us additional capability, as I mentioned in my comments, a capability that doesn't exist in WCD today. And so we're excited about that. That's part of why we're investing into that. And excited to discuss that with you all over the next few months.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew O'Brien of Piper Sandler.

Matthew O'Brien

Something maybe around 400 to 500 basis points from what we were expecting before. And is the time frame the same versus the 70% you expected to get to? Or is it just a little further out? And then I have a follow-up.

Vaseem Mahboob

Yes. So just on gross margins -- Matt, thanks for the question. We have now expanded gross margins 11 quarters in a row with margin increasing over 10 points year-over-year in this quarter. We continue to benefit from higher revenue per fit based on improvements on our in-network mix and also all of the CIP programs are delivering results. As we have said previously, you should see steady and consistent sequential increases in gross margin going forward. We have good line of sight to achieving gross margins of the mid-70% that we talked about over the next few years, driven by the attractive unit economics inherent in the business model that we have talked about in the past.

But this is up from our prior view of 70% and the confidence where it comes from 3 things. One, is the reduction in cost per fit driven by the progress of the programs, the volume-based reductions that we're seeing from our suppliers, improvements in revenue per fit, mostly driven by this in-network mix continue to move higher. And we feel really confident that the unit economics plus the volume growth that we expect over the years will help us get to that mid-70% gross margin.

Matthew O'Brien

Okay. Appreciate that. And then I guess to follow up on Larry's question on the guide. If I look at the cadence here, expecting more in the back half of the year in terms of the acceleration would lead you to some pretty big numbers in Q3 and Q4, especially Q4 sequentially versus what you've done -- which you did in fiscal '26. So what are you seeing from a rep productivity perspective? Just putting these territories and seeing improved productivity from those regions, et cetera, that gives you the confidence that you're going to be able to get to these levels throughout the course of the year?

Brian Webster

Yes. Thanks, Matt. Just -- first of all, I appreciate you pointing out that that's a big quarter to that last line of the year, we agreed. But I think what we're seeing, we get a couple of hints in the prepared commentary, what we're seeing is we're having success as we split some of the larger territories, and we doubled down into those territories. So we're seeing the rep productivity opportunity to be significant as we further penetrate some of these accounts. And then the natural leverage that we will get from the cohort of reps that we hired late in FY '26 and here in the early stages of FY '27 we'll start to see productivity in the back half of the year.

So it's a combination of those things that really gives us the confidence plus a lot of the benefit we will see from some of our ongoing marketing programs, that support the commercial team, and we expect the combination of all those things to lead to that kind of growth.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Polark of Wolfe Research.

Michael Polark

I know the disclosure is changing, but I'm going to take a crack at it anyways. In the quarter, you beat the Street by 7% on revenue. I'm wondering if you'd help us frame the portion of that beat from volume versus the portion of that beat from revenue per fit relative to what you think the consensus model was. I'm just working to keep the model build as high quality as it can be as we enter this new era.

Vaseem Mahboob

Yes. So great question. We obviously not commenting on the different elements of our previous claim conversion rate, Mike. But we can tell you that we saw continued improvement in all of the KPIs that drive the rent model, which is the fill rate, the bill rate and obviously, the in-period collections. So we feel really good about where we are. And as we have said, the best way to kind of think about the growth relative to prescription is to look at the historicals. And in the past, the prescription performance has lagged the revenue number by a couple of points. And that progression will hold for this year as it has in the past.

And we feel really confident about looking at the data that way. So -- and we will be providing you those details at the end of the year as we have promised. So overall, like I said, the KPIs are tracking all in the right direction, and we really feel great about the rest of the year as we head into the second quarter.

Michael Polark

Helpful, Vaseem. For the follow-up, Brian, I'm curious for more color on one of your mentions. So you mentioned a large commercial payer is now covering the non-ischemic population, and that's the first time that's happened. Clinical evidence side is the reason I think we can understand that. My question is how many commercial payers don't cover the non-ischemic population? Is this the last holdover? Or is this a first mover or one in the middle, I'd be curious where we are on that side.

Brian Webster

Yes. Yes. That's a good question, Mike. Along the large payers, I would say this was the outlier. Most of the large payers already cover that patient population. This one has been one that had sort of held out on that for a long time and just recently came back with a new coverage decisions. So there are other regional and smaller payers that have put similar positions to that large payer. And so we're optimistic that we'll also see some movement with some of them.

But it's a good signal. It's a good indicator that some of the evidence around the actual risk for some of these patients. It is starting to make a difference as we've been able to communicate it better. And I think that -- you're seeing that in the 14% market growth, and you're seeing that in payer coverage decisions like those.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Marie Thibault of BTIG.

Marie Thibault

I wanted to sort of understand a little bit more about the accelerated investment that you called out in some of these key R&D programs. Should we expect R&D spend to be a little bit higher than we've previously been thinking about for the rest of the year? How would you have us think about the cadence of some of those investments? And then as part of that, you mentioned with the AI efforts you're going to hopefully curve the operating expense costs over time. Wondering if you have a time line on those impacts. I know it's probably fairly early, but any details on the time lines around that?

Brian Webster

Yes. Thanks, Marie. This is Brian. I'll take the R&D question and then Vaseem, you can grab the AR question. So on the R&D question, we do believe that those expenses were onetime in nature, we believe that the R&D expense line will go back down. In my period, when you have a multiyear R&D program that is coming close to the end of its schedule and you have an opportunity to apply and financial resources to accelerate and protect that schedule. And that's a bet that we'll make every day of the week. And that's what we get. And we feel good about that investment. We think that's going to net the results that we are looking for. But we do see that the R&D line when it comes to the spend will come back down in the forward quarters.

Vaseem Mahboob

Brian, just to kind of add to that very overall commentary on kind of OpEx. We didn't see the OpEx came in slightly higher at $55 million and our previously communicated number. And that was really driven by the Biobeat milestone payment. But I think more importantly, you'll see our overall R&D spend was up about 70%, which is significantly higher than what it has been historically. And this really to kind of ramp up or almost finalize the investment in the R&D program. So -- and that's why we're ready to kind of talk about in the details here over the next 90 days.

We expect the GAAP OpEx for the year to be at $220 million in 2027, which reflects continued investment on the commercial side. And then I think to Brian's point, we already spend returning back to historical levels, which is somewhat in the 5% to 7% range in the second half of the year. But that $220 million would still mean an OpEx growth of 20% in fiscal year '27 versus a guidance of 48%. So we will continue to drive significant operating leverage on OpEx overall. But I think the -- a lot of that operating leverage in outer years, not this year is predicated on some of these AI programs, but we are making investments this year that will help us bend the cost curve for revenue cycle management and improving reproductivity and things like that, that Brian talked about in the prepared remarks.

Marie Thibault

All right. That's very helpful. And then just my follow-up, just a curiosity really. I recall last quarter, you flagged that a meaningful proportion of your prescription volumes had not yet converted to revenue and would show up in this fiscal quarter. Are you able to quantify at all how many millions came in as a result of the strong volume last quarter?

Vaseem Mahboob

I mean, we haven't -- historically, we have not provided the detail, like I said, to Mike's question. I think historically, the relationship between the revenue growth and prescription has been -- the prescriptions has lagged by a couple of points, and I think that will continue for this year.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of [ Rick Wise ] of Stifel.

Unknown Analyst

Maybe, Vaseem, you could help us think through thoughtfully the quarterly cadence as we proceed through the year. You've been very clear about the second half being higher, larger, bigger than the first half. But that was the pattern last year as well, of course. But last year as well, the dollars each quarter had a nice step-up walking through to make that stronger half as well. Back to Marie's excellent question, was there anything unusually strong or onetime in nature in the first quarter that might make us think anything other than we'll see whatever it is, a solid $1 million or $2 million sequential step-up quarterly into the second quarter and then sort of more of the same as you get into the second half and that, as you note, the rep productivity accelerates, et cetera.

Vaseem Mahboob

So yes, so again, great question, great try. I think I'm going to say it one more time slightly differently. I think if you think about last year, this is Q1, we were just coming off of the IPO. And if you remember, at that time, we had just started to ramp up the hiring of the sales team, and that was the track last year, which was that we know there's a ramp. We know what that ramp looks like. And as we have said in the past and we'll say it today, our rep productivity continues to ramp to that model that we have discussed with you guys in the past. So yes, the 60% revenue growth in Q1 is a favorable comp off of that $19 million and change number from Q1 last year. But then at the same time, when you look at the guidance that we are providing here for the remainder of the year, the first half versus the second half is consistent with last year. So there's no difference. And that's also predicated again this year based on the significant hiring that we did in the last 6 months, and those reps ramp up in both points on the board. So there's nothing different this year than last year.

Unknown Analyst

Okay. As you can tell, we're all obsessed. Just as a follow-up question. I wanted to -- I'm not quite sure how to ask that question, but I wanted to follow up, Brian, and your extended commentary and not the same as every quarter commentary on AI and automation initiatives bending, I think you said the operating margin growth curve. It was -- you broke up a little bit. I couldn't quite get your exact language. But given that focus and your intensity about this and all the points you made, the different points, when does this -- is there 1 or 2 of these in particular that are going to be meaningful? And when do we see the impact? Is this happening right now? Are we going to see it more in fiscal '28? Just help us better understand the implications of all this work you're doing.

Brian Webster

Yes. Thank you, Rick. I appreciate that question. I would say a couple of things. First of all, we -- when we look at the cost per dollar of revenue that comes from the volume-based G&A functions, that's where we see that curve starting to occur on the expense side. We've started to see that gradually here in FY '27. We expect that to accelerate in FY '28 and '29 as we implement more of the technologies. We think there's a really nice opportunity. And in this business, when you've got this many transactions and this volume impact of additional market share, then if you don't implement the automation, then you are committing yourself to human volume-based G&A investment. And so what we're trying to do is get ahead of that with the investments in the technology stack that I talked about, and the AI and automation. And we're starting to see a little bit of that benefit now, and we'll see that curve accelerate as we move into next year and the year beyond.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Travis Steed of BofA.

Unknown Analyst

This is [ Stephanie Algazi ] on for Travis. Congrats on a good quarter. With the guide update, I was curious if there's any updates to how you're thinking about market expansion and market share. You noted market growth of around 14% this past quarter. Any expectations for where that can go this year? And then on market share, you had expected incremental share gains this year versus the 4 points you gained last year. So any updates in terms of market share as well?

Brian Webster

Yes. Thanks for the question, Stephanie. I think in terms of market growth, the market is definitely accelerating. We've seen that market growth is essentially doubled since the IPO. And so we don't have any reason to believe that it's going to decelerate at this point, especially when we see that our competitor is taking a significant amount of energy on pushing the market in the category. So -- and obviously, we are doing that as well. So we expect that to continue to grow. How fast that grows or not is difficult to call at this point.

We think in this most recent quarter, we're somewhere around 15% market share in the U.S. market. And certainly, when we're growing at 60% and our competitors growing at a fraction of that, and that means that we're going to continue to capture share. And I think we get our long-range planning. We have fairly modest assumptions around market share and where that goes, and we're ahead of schedule when it comes to that, and we expect to continue to see really nice gains as we feel a larger team and we build some of this additional capability and innovation that we talked about.

Unknown Analyst

That's helpful. And then you talked about new reps ramping faster than prior cohorts. Just curious what you're seeing now versus before? And is there a way to frame how much revenue growth is driven by account expansion versus deeper penetration into existing accounts?

Brian Webster

Well, the new cohorts ramping more rapidly, I think, has to do with some of the investments we've made in our -- both our recruiting capabilities and our training capabilities. We really made a big investment in how rigorous our training is for our new territory managers as they come into the company, and we're seeing the benefits of that. I think we've got a mix between going deeper in some of the accounts and splitting some of the territories, as I mentioned, but we're also expanding into new territories where we haven't had a presence at all. And some of the exciting growth that we're seeing is definitely coming from those expansion territories. So it will be a mix. I don't know the exact ratio right now, but I think we'll continue to see a mix between going deeper in certain territories versus expanding into brand-new territories.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Robbie Marcus of JPMorgan.

Unknown Analyst

This is [ Alan ] on for Robbie. Just one quick one. You previously talked to gross margin expansion of around 700 basis points. It sounds very bullish on gross margin progression and outperformed expectations so far in the first quarter. So just curious if you have an update on that similar to how you updated operating expense expectations.

Vaseem Mahboob

Yes. So yes, we did comment on the 70% now kind of heading north to kind of the mid-70s. We do expect that based on the current gross margin guidance, the 700-point expansion for next year, I think, is pretty solid. But as you think about the gross margin number for fiscal year 2029, we expect to -- for the year to deliver 70% gross margin, and that would basically give you a pretty clear line of sight on the second half of that year is going to be gross margin that's going to be north of 70%. So again, we are not talking about mid-70s in 5 years. We're talking about mid-70s in the next 2 to 3 years. So -- and we're very optimistic and have a lot of confidence in our ability to get there.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Suraj Kalia of Oppenheimer & Company.

Suraj Kalia

Congrats on a nice quarter. Gentlemen, 2 questions, one for Brian and one for Vaseem. Vaseem, 14% nominal growth. Can you characterize it by unit growth and where you stood in terms of share? And Brian, my second question, I'll ask that upfront. One of your comments caught my attention about AI, and I'm just paraphrasing your endeavor for AI to help improve fittings per rep. I guess I'm curious what kind of a data you're going to have your AI models to improve this metric because it could have pretty interesting implications for improving on patient acquisition costs over time.

Vaseem Mahboob

Yes. So let me take the volume piece first. So as I said in my previous commentary to the questions, since we are not commenting on prescriptions and fittings, and we committed to providing that on an annual basis. I'll just kind of close and provide more clarity. We do -- the conversion rate as we used to talk about was up and all of the elements that drive the conversion rate were all trading better than expected. So the 60% growth that we delivered this quarter and was a direct consequence of that. And again, as we have said, when we give you that annual number at the end of this year on prescriptions and fittings like we did last year, you will see that the relationship between revenue and the prescriptions will hold that prescriptions being a couple of points lower than the top line. And that's predicated on us continuing to make improvements in our revenue cycle management capabilities and the ability to fit those patients and convert those prescriptions into revenue.

Brian Webster

Yes. Thanks, Suraj. On the revenue -- on the fittings per sales rep, that's really a measure of sales rep productivity. So it's really about using some of those AI tools to free up time to make the rep give them more data to be able to decide how they spend their day, where they spend their day, where the insights are that allow them to better manage their territories. And ultimately, as we make them more efficient, then that means they can spend more time penetrating the accounts that they get into, and that then leads to the higher fittings per sales rep. And yes, you're spot on when you say that that's a pretty meaningful metric. I think it's very clear to us that when we think about the path to profitability, that path to profitability, that road runs right through rep productivity. And that's why we're investing in some of those tools, why we're investing in all the training capability and recruiting capability and all those things with regards to our commercial team. So I appreciate that question.

Operator

Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to Brian Webster for closing remarks. Sir?

Brian Webster

Thank you, and thank you all for your great questions and for attending the call. We're obviously excited by the start to the year. We're certainly bullish on our story. And when it comes down to when you have a product that is clearly superior, you have a category where there's an unmet need of a significant number of patients, you have the ability to expand your commercial team to cover the market. We have clinical evidence that is compelling. And you get into those new innovation, that all leads to market growth and it leads to rapid share capture. And that's what we're seeing, and we expect to continue to see.

We're very proud of the execution that the team has had over the prior quarters, including this Q1 that we're reporting on now. And we're just getting the year started. It's a new year. It's a good business plan. We have new priorities this year. And as we fold those in, and we're excited about executing against the plan for FY '27. So thank you very much, and we look forward to updating you again in a few months.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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