Annual Report for Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2025 (Form 10-K)

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

MARKET RISK

We are exposed to certain market risks as part of our ongoing business operations, including risks from changes in foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates and commodity prices that could affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We manage our exposure to these and other market risks through regular operating and financing activities and through the use of derivative financial instruments. We use derivative financial instruments solely as risk management tools and not for speculative investment purposes.

FOREIGN CURRENCY EXCHANGE RISK

We operate on a global basis and are exposed to the risk that our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates. To reduce the potential effects of foreign currency exchange rate movements on net earnings, we enter into derivative financial instruments in the form of foreign currency exchange forward contracts with major financial institutions. See Note 14 to our consolidated financial statements for further details on our foreign currency exchange risk exposure and management.

We maintain written policies and procedures governing our risk management activities. Our policy requires that critical terms of hedging instruments be the same as hedged forecasted transactions. On this basis, with respect to cash flow hedges, changes in cash flows attributable to hedged transactions are generally expected to be offset by changes in the fair value of hedge instruments. As part of our risk management program, we also perform sensitivity analyses to assess potential changes in revenue, operating results, cash flows and financial position relating to hypothetical movements in currency exchange rates. A sensitivity analysis of changes in the fair value of foreign currency exchange forward contracts outstanding at December 31, 2025 indicated that, if the U.S. Dollar uniformly strengthened or weakened in value by 10 percent relative to all currencies, with no change in the interest differentials, the fair value of those contracts would affect earnings in a range of a decrease of approximately $109 million to an increase of approximately $107 million before income taxes in periods through April 2028.

Any change in the fair value of foreign currency exchange forward contracts as a result of a fluctuation in a currency exchange rate is expected to be largely offset by a change in the value of the hedged transaction. Consequently, foreign currency exchange contracts would not subject us to material risk due to exchange rate movements because gains and losses on these contracts offset gains and losses on the assets, liabilities and transactions being hedged.

We had net assets, excluding goodwill and intangible assets, in legal entities with non-U.S. Dollar functional currencies of $1,490.4 million at December 31, 2025.

We enter into foreign currency forward exchange contracts with terms of one to three months to manage currency exposures for monetary assets and liabilities denominated in a currency other than an entity's functional currency. As a result, foreign currency remeasurement gains/losses recognized in earnings are generally offset with gains/losses on the foreign currency forward exchange contracts in the same reporting period.

For details about these and other financial instruments, including fair value methodologies, see Note 14 to our consolidated financial statements.

COMMODITY PRICE RISK

We purchase raw material commodities such as cobalt chrome, titanium, tantalum, polymer and sterile packaging. We enter into supply contracts generally with terms of 12 to 24 months, where available, on these commodities to alleviate the effect of market fluctuation in prices. As part of our risk management program, we perform sensitivity analyses related to potential commodity price changes.

INTEREST RATE RISK

In the normal course of business, we are exposed to market risk from changes in interest rates that could affect our results of operations and financial condition. We manage our exposure to interest rate risks through our regular operations and financing activities.

We invest our cash and cash equivalents primarily in highly-rated corporate commercial paper and bank deposits. The primary investment objective is to ensure capital preservation. Currently, we do not use derivative financial instruments in our investment portfolio.

The majority of our debt is fixed-rate debt and therefore is not exposed to changes in interest rates. Based upon our overall interest rate exposure as of December 31, 2025, a change of 10 percent in interest rates, assuming the principal amount outstanding remains constant, would not have a material effect on interest expense, net. This analysis does not consider the effect of the change in the level of overall economic activity that could exist in such an environment.

CREDIT RISK

Financial instruments, which potentially subject us to concentrations of credit risk, are primarily cash and cash equivalents, derivative instruments and accounts receivable.

We place our cash and cash equivalents and enter into derivative transactions with highly-rated financial institutions and limit the amount of credit exposure to any one entity. We believe we do not have any significant credit risk on our cash and cash equivalents or derivative instruments.

Our concentrations of credit risks with respect to trade accounts receivable is limited due to the large number of customers and their dispersion across a number of geographic areas and by frequent monitoring of the creditworthiness of the customers to whom credit is granted in the normal course of business. Substantially all of our trade receivables are concentrated in the public and private hospital and healthcare industry in the U.S. and internationally or with distributors or dealers who operate in international markets and, accordingly, are exposed to their respective business, economic and country specific variables. Our ability to collect accounts receivable in some countries depends in part upon the financial stability of these hospital and healthcare sectors and the respective countries' national economic and healthcare systems. Most notably, in Europe healthcare is typically sponsored by the government. Since we sell products to public hospitals in those countries, we are indirectly exposed to government budget constraints and price reduction initiatives. To the extent the respective governments' ability to fund their public hospital programs deteriorates, we may have to record significant bad debt expenses in the future.

While we are exposed to risks from the broader healthcare industry in Europe and around the world, there is no significant net exposure due to any individual customer. Exposure to credit risk is controlled through credit approvals, credit limits and monitoring procedures, and we believe that reserves for losses are adequate.