Jan Siegmund
Analyst · Sara Gubins with Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Thank you, Carlos, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to participate in my first call after having responsibility to contribute to the strategic development of ADP. I'm especially looking forward to translating our strategy into results. As Carlos said, I've had the chance to meet with many of you and look forward to continuing that dialogue. And I'm also happy to have good results to start off on my first conference call. Now let's turn to Slide 5. As you may recall, in last year's second quarter, ADP recorded a pretax gain on the sale of assets of $66 million, $41 million after tax and about $0.08 per share. We have treated this gain as a onetime item for comparative purposes. So although we have shown on this slide the year-over-year results, both including and excluding this gain, I'm only going to take you through the results excluding the gain. Our revenue growth rate improved compared to the first quarter. For the second quarter, total revenues grew 7%, with acquisitions contributing approximately 1 point of growth. Pretax margins increased 4%, and ADP's pretax margin -- I'm sorry, pretax earnings increased 4%, and ADP's pretax margin declined 60 basis points, primarily as a result of continued low interest rates. But I'm pleased that pretax margins in the business segments expanded nicely. We reported a 6% increase in net earnings from continuing operations on lower effective tax rate. You may recall that the first quarter effective tax rate was higher than 1 year ago, but through the first 6 months, the effective tax rate is 34.2%, right in line with our year-to-date expectations. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 7% and benefited from fewer shares outstanding compared to last year. We repurchased 5.9 million ADP shares fiscal year-to-date for a total cost of $341 million. We ended the quarter with cash and marketable securities of $1.5 billion. Let's turn now to Slide 6. As you read in the earnings release, there were several items that impacted the year-over-year comparisons, and we have detailed these on Slide 6. As anticipated, revenue growth was negatively impacted by 2.5 percentage points by the following: 0.5 point from unfavorable foreign exchange rates, 1 point from lower client fund interest revenues due to lower market interest rates and 1 point from lost revenue related to last year's second quarter sale of assets and the expiration of certain employment tax credits in our Tax Credit Services business. A couple of these items also negatively impacted pretax earnings and margins. Collectively, pretax earnings growth was negatively impacted 6 percentage points, and ADP pretax margin was negatively impacted 160 basis points by the following: fiscal 2012 acquisitions did not have a meaningful impact on pretax earnings but negatively impacted ADP pretax margin 20 basis points; the client fund extended investment strategy, which is driven primarily by interest on client funds, negatively impacted pretax earnings growth 4% and pretax margins 110 basis points; the impact from last year's sale of assets and the expiration of certain employment tax credits negatively impacted pretax earnings growth by 2% and pretax margin by 30 basis points. These items also negatively impacted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations nearly $0.05 per share or 7 points of growth in the second quarter. So the point I'm making is that the underlying business momentum is solid, tempered by these above-mentioned items. Let's move on to Slide 7 and talk about the business segment results. As I have stated, we are pleased with the performance of our business segments. Employer Services grew total revenues 7%. The PEO grew 13%, driven by 10% growth in the number of our average worksite employees. And Dealer Services grew 11%. On an organic basis, Employer Services grew 6%, PEO was all organic 13%, and Dealer Services grew 9%. Combined, worldwide new business bookings for Employer Services and PEO grew 5%, and Carlos took you through those items a few moments ago. Focusing on Employer Services. Of the items we called out that impacted total company results in the quarter, the foregone revenues related to last year's second quarter sale of assets and the expiration of certain tax credits negatively impacted our Employer Services segment revenue growth by nearly 1 percentage point. Growth from our strategic platform RUN, retirement services and insurance services were the primary drivers of our healthy growth in the small business marketplace. In the mid-market, revenues from our platform Workforce Now are increasing, and so are HR services and comprehensive services revenues. And at the high end of the market, we are pleased with our Vantage new bookings. But the contribution of revenue growth is still small at this point. As you know, it is a new offering for us. Particularly noteworthy are the attach rates for Vantage. Benefit solutions, Time & Labor Management are approximately 80% each and multi-product sales for Vantage. And the attach rate for Talent, which is a new ADP solution, is already approaching 70%. Revenue growth in the quarter for multinational solutions was also solid. Same-store pays per control in Employer Services in the U.S. increased 2.6%. However, as Carlos mentioned, same-store pays per control in Europe declined during the quarter, but they were in line with our expectations. We are pleased with -- that client revenue retention increased by 80 basis points in the quarter. And it also increased when you exclude that large client loss from prior year in the same quarter. Average client balances increased by 9% in the quarter. We see continuing growth in balances driven by solid new client growth, especially in Small Business Services, wage growth and increased pays per control. But also, and additionally, we saw an increase in bonus payrolls processed in December, and we believe that the decision for many of our clients to accelerate processing in December versus January was driven by the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. fiscal cliff and some anticipated changes in the tax policy. Let's now turn to Slide 8. And I'll take you through the forecast for the client funds investment strategy in support of the overall ADP forecast that Carlos will take you through in a few moments. Before I get into the details of the forecast, I'll point out that the primary objectives of our investment strategy remain safety, liquidity and diversification. At December 31, approximately 84% of our fixed-income portfolio was invested into either AAA- or AA-rated securities. We continue to base the interest assumptions in our forecast on the Fed Funds futures contract as well as the forward yield curves for the 3.5- and the 5-year U.S. government agencies. We do not believe that it's possible to accurately predict future interest rates and the shape of the yield curve or the new bond issuance behavior of corporations. I will also remind you that up to 15% to 20% of the investments are subject to reinvestment risk each year. Focusing for now on this slide, you see a summary of the anticipated pretax earnings impact of the extended investment strategy for the client funds investment portfolio for fiscal 2013. We continue to anticipate average client fund balances for fiscal year 2013 in the range of $18.8 billion to $19.1 billion, which represents 5% to 7% balanced growth. We anticipate a yield in the client funds portfolio of about 2.2%, down about 60 basis points from fiscal year 2012, resulting in an anticipated year-over-year decline in client funds interest of about $75 million, which is at the high end of our previously forecasted decline. As you can see, at the lower right of the chart, in terms of the total pretax impact of the extended investment strategy, we anticipate a decline of $85 million to $90 million for fiscal year 2013, which reflects the $5 million deterioration in the client interest forecast. Taking you back to our Analyst Conference at the end of May last year, and using the 5% balance growth scenario, we expected a $70 million to $80 million decline in fiscal year 2013. Since the end of May, the 3.5- and 5-year agency forward curves have declined about 30 basis points on average. Combining the impact of the current lower expected rates, which our balance -- with our balance growth expectations of 5% to 7%, we now anticipate a year-over-year decline of $85 million to $90 million. Looking forward to fiscal year 2013, we still expect fiscal 2013 to be at the bottom of the cycle in terms of the size of our year-over-year decline. I'll now turn it back to Carlos. He will take you through the remainder of the forecast for fiscal year 2013.