Zoetis is a $9 billion public company that manufactures pharmaceuticals for both pets and livestock. Its CFO, Wetteny Joseph, appeared on Morning Brew’s After Earnings podcast to discuss his company’s product portfolio and the macro trends he’s seeing around animal health.

This summary has been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the whole episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Talk to us about some of the hero products you have within your portfolio.

We have 300 product lines, and we have more blockbusters than anyone else in our space…In animal health, a blockbuster is considered $100 million in revenue. We have two billion-dollar franchises within our product slate, and a third one on its way.

95% of pet owners consider their pet as a member of their family. That means…they’re living longer, and therefore they’re developing certain chronic conditions…osteoarthritis pain—the same things we have as humans as we get older…Our next billion-dollar franchise is in that space.

For more on Zoetis’s strategy, click here.—CV

Outsourced accounting is catching on among middle-market companies, a survey from top 30 accounting firm UHY found. Nearly half (45%) of middle-market firms said they outsourced their accounting either partially or entirely. That’s a considerable increase from 2022, when almost eight in 10 survey respondents said they hadn’t even looked into outsourcing.

Accounting firms have made a big push into offering outsourced CFO, controller, bookkeeping, and other services in recent years. According to Accounting Today’s 2024 Top 100 Firms survey, client accounting services, or CAS (a catchall term that includes outsourced accounting) was the #1 niche firms were specializing in. More than eight in 10 (84%) of the responding firms saw higher demand for CAS in 2024.

The UHY survey, which polled more than 275 middle market business owners across a variety of industries, found that 19% of middle market firms had entirely outsourced their accounting, and that 26% outsourced some and did the rest in-house.

More middle-market optimism: Firm owners are feeling positive about their prospects next year, the survey found. A solid majority—81%—said they were optimistic about the US economy in 2025, and a third (33%) said they were “strongly” so. And the vast majority (88%) predicted their companies would see the same or higher growth next year.

Click here for more on accounting offshoring.—CV

It’s economic silver linings all around! Well, sorta, kinda, maybe.

US manufacturing contracted last month, albeit at a slower pace than the previous month, according to the latest report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). ISM’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 48.4% in November, an improvement from 46.5% in October but still indicative of sector contraction, as it’s still below the 50% mark.

But the overall economy expanded, the ISM reported, and some manufacturers are excited over the prospect of less red tape under incoming President Donald Trump, according to the ISM’s Inside Supply Management magazine.

“The business community grabbed on to the Republican win,” Timothy Fiore, who leads ISM’s manufacturing business survey committee, told reporters during a Monday conference call, Inside Supply Management reported.

“There’s going to be a bit of money put into the economy and some regulations cut. We’ll see what that does to the business environment, but overall, the panelists have perceived this to be very positive,” he added.

For more on the manufacturing outlook, click here.—AZ