Good afternoon. Thanks for joining Envista's third quarter 2025 earnings call. We appreciate your interest in our company. With me today are Paul Keel, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Eric Hammes, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I want to point out that our earnings release, the slide presentation supplementing today's call, and reconciliations and other information required by SEC Regulation G relating to any non-GAAP financial measures provided during the call are all available on the Investor section of our website, www.envistaco.com. The audio portion of this call will be archived in the Investor section of our website later today under the heading Events and Presentations. During the presentation, we will describe some of the more significant factors that impacted year-over-year performance. The supplemental materials describe additional factors that impacted our results.
Unless otherwise noted, references to these remarks to company-specific financial metrics relate to the Third Quarter of 2025 and references to period-to-period increases and decreases in financial metrics are year-over-year. During the call, we may describe certain products and solutions that have applications submitted and pending certain regulatory approvals or are available only in certain markets. We will also make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events and developments that we believe, anticipate, or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filings, and actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements that we make today. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. With that, I'll turn the call over to Paul.
Thank you, Jim. Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. On today's call, I'll kick us off with some opening thoughts on our Q3 and year-to-date performance, as well as a brief strategic and operational update. Eric will then take us through the financials in more detail. I'll wrap things up with some closing thoughts, and then, as always, we'll open it up for your questions. Slide 4 summarizes three things: Q3 results, year-to-date performance, and another update to our full-year 2025 guidance. Let's begin on the left with Q3 results. We posted another solid quarter, delivering strong revenue and earnings growth and good margin expansion. Core growth came in at 9%, aided by the expected Spark deferral benefit. Excluding this, core growth in the quarter was around 5%, with all major businesses once again in positive territory.
Adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.5%, up more than 500 basis points from Q3 of 2024, supported by good growth and productivity. Adjusted EPS was $0.32, more than twice the Q3 2024 result. Moving to year-to-date performance, core growth came in around 3% after normalizing for last year's changes in Spark deferral and dealer inventory levels. Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA margin is around 13%, showing progress in Q3 over H1. Rounding out the column, through three quarters, we've delivered $0.82 of adjusted EPS, a 67% increase over the same period last year. Moving to the column on the right, given our good year-to-date performance and strong momentum, we are again raising our full-year 2025 guidance. We now expect core revenue growth of approximately 4%, up from 3%-4% previously, and adjusted EPS of $1.10-$1.15 versus $1.05-$1.15 previously.
EBITDA margin guidance for the year is unchanged at approximately 14%. Let's now turn to progress we made in the quarter in support of our three core priorities of growth, operations, and people. Beginning with growth on the left side of the chart, ours was well-balanced between volume and price and broad-based across the portfolio as ortho consumables, diagnostics, and implants all delivered growth. We again held share in implants while gaining share in all other major businesses. Our strong performance funded another quarter of double-digit increases in strategic R&D and sales and marketing investment.
We're seeing good returns from these investments, evidenced by several major new product launches in the quarter, including Spark Junior, a comprehensive aligner solution for younger patients, Spark Stage RX, a digital workflow platform for enhanced clinician support, Orascoptic ErgoZoom, a novel loupe system that combines superior ergonomics with adjustable magnification, and DEXIS Imprevo iOS, a significant leap forward in terms of intraoral scanning speed, precision, and versatility. We're also seeing good market traction from previously launched new products such as Spark On-Demand, Spark Retainers, and BiteSync Class II Corrector, as well as Nobel Biocare's new multi-unit abutment, which integrates our novel surface treatment with a slimmer emergence profile. The solution is designed to promote soft tissue healing and supports a stronger biologic seal for long-term stability.
In terms of customer education, this quarter we trained more than 15,000 clinicians, including hosting several high-impact events balanced across all geographies and businesses. Examples include well-attended CUR and Ormco forums in Europe and a major Nobel and DEXIS symposium in Japan. On the operations front, we continue to enjoy strong contributions from EBS, our continuous improvement methodology that is central to how we deliver results, develop our people, and advance our culture. In addition, we delivered further year-on-year G&A reductions while maintaining high customer service levels. Last quarter, we announced a new R&D and manufacturing facility in China. In Q3, we broke ground on a new multipurpose diagnostic center just down the road from our existing facility in Finland, which has long been a hub for innovation in dental imaging.
Finally, with respect to people, we continue to advance our high-performing continuous improvement culture, seeing growing momentum in engagement and talent development. This week, we published our 2024 Sustainability Report. Available on our website, the report details the many initiatives that are underway across key focus areas like expanding access to dental care for underserved populations, investing in our colleagues and communities, being good stewards of the environment, and building on our century-plus rock-solid foundation of doing business the right way. Before I turn the call over to Eric, I'll mention some important milestones for our Spark aligner business in Q3. On the growth front, we shipped our one millionth case since launching the business in 2019. We're pleased to have gone from zero to nearly $300 million in revenue in under six years, funded entirely by operating profits generated elsewhere in our portfolio.
We are the only orthodontic provider with leading positions in both fixed and aligner therapy, operating in all major geographies, and with a global supply chain that allows us to respond seamlessly to macro and market conditions. This global scale brings me to the second milestone we crossed in the quarter. Last year, we committed to positive operating profit for Spark sometime in the second half of this year, and we reached that level in Q3. Behind this strong momentum, we expect continued margin and market share gains moving forward. These milestones were several years in the making, and we applaud the many contributions from our colleagues, partners, and customers that both got us here and continue to propel us forward. With that, I'll turn the call over to Eric to walk us through the numbers.
Thanks, Paul. In the third quarter, we delivered sales of $670 million. Core sales in the quarter increased 9.4%, and FX added another 200 basis points. Our Q3 growth benefited from last year's change in Spark deferral, which I'll say more about in just a moment. Excluding this effect, as well as dealer inventory realignment that we discussed on prior calls, year-to-date growth was around 3%. Our underlying core growth in the quarter was another positive step for Envista. This reflects the changes we've made in 2024 and 2025 to improve our growth potentials. Q3 adjusted gross margin was 56.1%, an increase of 330 basis points versus the prior year. Volume, price, improvements in our global supply chain, and the expanding Spark margins that Paul just mentioned all contributed to the gains.
Our adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 14.5%, which was 540 basis points better than the prior year. Margins were helped by the previously mentioned gains in gross margins, as well as continued strong G&A productivity. Adjusted EPS in the quarter was $0.32, up $0.20 compared to the same quarter of last year. Our non-GAAP tax rate for the quarter was 31.2%, slightly better than our expectations. We continue to see a beneficial trend in our non-GAAP tax rate as a result of our strong business performance in the U.S., which increases our level of interest deductibility related to third-party and intercompany interest expense. Also, you'll notice in our Q3 filing a one-time GAAP charge related to a discrete tax adjustment. This relates to the elimination of a significant intercompany loan, which had been a headwind to our global tax rate.
While settling the loan resulted in a one-time charge in our Q3 GAAP results, this does not impact our full-year 2025 non-GAAP rate. Most importantly, there is a near-zero net cash impact from the restructuring. While our estimated non-GAAP tax rate for 2025 is unchanged, over time, we do anticipate future tax benefit as a result of this action, both on a reported and cash basis, and we'll provide more details on this in the coming quarters. Rounding out slide 7, in Q3, we generated $68 million of free cash flow, up slightly from last year, principally driven by our improved profitability. Now let's turn to two bridges to help break down our year-over-year results, beginning with sales. Core revenues grew 9.4% in the quarter, with positive growth in all major businesses. Combined, volume and price contributed about 500 basis points.
Q3 growth was also helped by Spark tailwinds, both primary case growth and deferral benefits, as well as favorable prior-year comparables. Q3 was another solid quarter of growth for Envista. Foreign exchange contributed roughly $11 million of sales, or about 200 basis points, reflecting the weaker U.S. dollar. Finally, we had a minor benefit from the two acquisitions mentioned on the Q2 call, both of which support implants growth in prioritized markets. Turning to the adjusted EBITDA margin bridge on Slide 9, the change in Spark deferrals delivered about 390 basis points of growth this quarter. It's worth noting that while the change has resulted in a year-over-year benefit, absolute revenues and profit delivered in Q3 are a good baseline for modeling the business going forward. Volume, mix, and price combined to deliver a 240 basis point improvement. As mentioned, we saw broad-based performance across the portfolio on these dimensions.
We had a net gain of 80 basis points from improved productivity, with G&A down more than 12% year-to-date. As Paul noted earlier, we continue to reinvest a portion of our productivity gains back into sales, marketing, and R&D to support future growth, which amounted to 130 basis points in the quarter. Increased tariff costs compressed margins by about 140 basis points. On the Q2 call, we committed to offsetting full-year tariff costs and we're still tracking to do so. It goes without saying that the tariff landscape remains fluid and we'll continue to update you as matters evolve. Turning to segment performance, revenue in specialty products and technology grew 13% year-on-year, with core sales up 10.6%. In our orthodontics business, Spark was up high teens before the additional benefit from the net deferral change.
The strong pipeline of product launches that Paul touched on earlier are all adding to our momentum. Brackets and wires was flat year-on-year as underlying growth in several markets was offset by continued VBP preparations in China. The Q2 buy-ahead that we discussed last quarter also played a role. On the implant side, we delivered a fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth globally, led by above-market performance in North America. Our prosthetics and digital solutions portfolio had another strong quarter, as did our regenerative biomaterials business. In Q3, specialty products and technologies posted an adjusted operating margin of 15.5%. Up 850 basis points, driven by good growth as well as the year-over-year impact of Spark turning profitable. Volume, price, and net productivity were all positive in this segment, and consistent with prior comments, a portion of the gains were reinvested in commercial and new product development activities.
Moving to our equipment and consumables segment, core sales in the quarter increased 7.3% versus prior year, including double-digit growth in consumables, where we delivered broad-based growth across the portfolio, including solid price performance. Diagnostics core sales growth was up modestly for a second consecutive quarter, with North America and Europe both delivering a positive result. Similar to SP&T, new products are an important part of our diagnostics playbook. Innovative launches like a new CBCT platform last year and a new iOS last quarter are striking a chord with customers. Adjusted operating profit margin was roughly flat year-over-year at around 20%, while profit dollars were up about 9%. Let's now turn to cash flow.
Q3 free cash flow was $68 million, an increase of about $5 million when compared to the third quarter of last year, as improved sales and margins were partially offset by increases in inventory and increased growth CapEx. Year-to-date, free cash conversion of 100% is in line with the outlook we provided at our March capital markets day. Free cash flow dollars are down year-to-date, as relative performance in 2023 warranted a lower incentive bonus payment in 2024. Our balance sheet remained strong and stable, with a net debt to adjusted EBITDA of approximately one time, providing welcome stability in the current environment. In Q3, we deployed approximately $40 million in cash to repurchase 2.1 million shares of stock. On a year-to-date basis, we've repurchased over $140 million, or a total of 8 million shares, as we continue to execute our $250 million two-year repurchase authorization.
I'll now say a few more words about the updated guidance that Paul introduced earlier. Slide 13 summarizes the changes. A core sales growth of approximately 4% versus 3%-4% previously, building on the 3% year-to-date underlying performance that Paul mentioned earlier. We estimate EPS of $1.10-$1.15 versus $1.05-$1.15 previously. Finally, our full-year adjusted EBITDA margin estimate is unchanged at approximately 14%, as we expect Q4 to build on the year-to-date performance levels while reflecting continued investment in the business. Back to you, Paul, to wrap things up.
Thanks, Eric. A few closing thoughts on the quarter. First, we haven't said much about the dental market on this call because things really haven't changed much from Q2. On balance, underlying patient demand remains stable, albeit still below typical longer-term levels for the market. Macro uncertainty remains high, which continues to impact some of the more discretionary procedure segments. Second, our momentum continues to build, with core growth of roughly 5% in the quarter and 3% year-to-date after adjusting through Spark deferral and dealer inventory realignment. This growth converted well to cash, margins, and EPS. We're again updating full-year guidance, with core growth and EPS both moving to the top end of the ranges that we shared on our Q2 call. Importantly, I'll close by noting that this progress is made possible by the wonderful talent and commitment of our global Envista team.
Please know how much we appreciate all you do in the service of our stakeholders. In the same way, we're grateful for the support we receive from our customers, partners, and shareholders. That completes our prepared remarks. We'll now open it up for Q&A.