“we'll return approximately $540 million of capital to shareholders this year through dividends, a 17% increase over 2022.”

In context

“n is performing well and we now assume it will contribute approximately $260 million to our reported revenue growth for the year and $0.09 to adjusted EPS. Below the line, we continue to expect net interest expense in 2023 to be approximately $480 million. The adjusted tax rate assumption for the year has improved to 10% versus our prior guidance of 10.8%, driven by our tax planning initiatives. We're now expecting net capital expenditures will be approximately $1.7 billion, and we continue to expect the free cash flow will be $6.9 billion for the year. In terms of capital deployment, our guidance includes $3 billion of share buybacks, which were already completed in January. We continue to assume that full-year average diluted share count will be approximately 388 million shares and that we'll return approximately $540 million of capital to shareholders this year through dividends, a 17% increase over 2022. And as is our normal convention, our guidance does not assume any future acquisitions or divestitures. We've not included any operational benefit in 2023 for the acquisition of CorEvitas. When we get more clarity on the actual close date for that acquisition, we'll provide an estimate of any potential impact in 2023. To conclude, we recognize that the changing guidance is significant. We think it's appropriate given the change in the macro environment. And as we said at our Investor Day, should market growth be lower than normal? We will leverage the PPI Business System and step up productivity and that's what we've done. We're well positioned to navigate the near-term environment. And while the near-term environment may be more challenging, the long-term fundamentals supporting the growt”