Jan Siegmund
Analyst · Jason Kupferberg of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open
Thank you very much, Carlos, and good morning, everyone. In my commentary to follow, I will be referencing non-GAAP measures that excludes the impact of certain items in the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 as well as the second quarter of fiscal year 2017. A description of these items and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures can be found in this morning’s press release and in the supplemental slides on our Investor Relations website. As Carlos mentioned, ADP revenues grew 8% in the quarter to $3.2 billion, and includes approximately 1 percentage points of benefit from foreign currency. On a reported basis, net earnings declined 8% or 9% on a constant-dollar basis, largely due to the prior year second quarter pretax gain of $205 million related to the sale of our CHSA and COBRA businesses, offset by a onetime fiscal year 2018 second quarter net tax benefit related to the U.S. corporate tax reform of approximately $46 million. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or adjusted EBIT, increased 2% on a reported basis. And it included approximately 1 point of pressure from the impact of acquisitions, the second quarter fiscal year 2017 disposition of our CHSA and COBRA businesses as well as FX. Adjusted EBIT margin decreased about 120 basis points compared to 19.8% in last year’s second quarter. This decrease was slightly better than our expectations, though we continue to see increased pressure from stronger-than-anticipated growth in pass-throughs and from acquisitions. During the quarter, we have maintained our investments into innovation, service and distribution, and we continue to believe in the benefits of these investments helping us deliver against our long-term financial – long-term strategic financial objective. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 14% to $0.99. 13% on a constant-dollar basis, and benefited from a lower effective tax rate and fewer shares outstanding compared with a year ago. The enactment in December 2017 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes significant changes to the U.S. corporate tax system, including a federal corporate tax rate reduction from 35% to 21% and, among other provisions, a repeal of the Section 199 domestic production activities deduction as well as new limitations on the deductibility of executive compensation. Our adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter of 25.6% was positively impacted by a lower blended statutory rate of 28.1%, which became effective at the beginning of our fiscal year. This benefit was partially offset by adjustments to access tax benefits on stock-based compensation and foreign tax credits. As a reminder, our adjusted results exclude a net tax benefit of approximately $46 million for onetime items, which encompass the benefit of the reevaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and transition tax on accumulated overseas earnings and a valuation allowance on foreign tax credits. Overall, we have continued to make good progress this quarter. Let me now take you through our segment results before moving on to our updated fiscal year 2018 outlook. In our Employer Services segment, revenues grew 6% for the quarter, 4% organic. Our same-store pays per control metric in the U.S. grew 2.6% in the second quarter. Average client fund balances grew 7% compared to a year ago. This growth was driven by higher payroll volumes in December, resulting from higher bonus activity. Outside the U.S., we continue to see solid performance from our international operations with double-digit revenue growth in our multinational businesses. Employer Services margin decreased about 50 basis points in the quarter and included approximately 70 basis points of pressure from the impact of acquisitions and FX. PEO revenues grew 15% in the quarter, with average worksite employees growing 10% to 498,000. This revenue growth was driven by growth in worksite average – growth in average worksite employees and from a continued acceleration in the growth of pass-through revenues from the higher health care premiums and higher-than-expected payrolls in the second quarter. This acceleration in pass-throughs was the primary driver for the 30 basis points of decline in the PEO’s reported margins this quarter. I’m pleased with the performance of both of our segments this quarter, while, as Carlos mentioned, we continued to work to accelerate our pace of change for the remainder of the year. Before I disclose our – discuss our fiscal year 2018 outlook, I wanted to highlight some additional detail regarding the acquisition of WorkMarket. The results of operations of this business will be included in the Employer Services segment and are not expected to materially impact our updated revenue guidance. While we anticipate future synergies from this acquisition and our second quarter acquisition of Global Cash Card, we also anticipate some slight pressure to margins this year, largely driven by acquisition-related costs. Accordingly, we have factored these operational impacts into our updated fiscal year 2018 outlook. With these items in mind, I will now take a moment to walk through our revised outlook with you. First, as Carlos mentioned earlier, we are reaffirming our full year new business bookings guidance of 5% to 7% growth on the $1.65 billion sold in fiscal year 2017. With the higher-than-anticipated growth in our pass-through revenues during the first half of fiscal year 2018, we have updated both our consolidated revenue forecast growth to 7% to 8% compared to our prior forecast of 6% to 8%, and our PEO revenue forecast to 12% to 13% from 11% to 13%. Our Employer Services revenue guidance of 4% to 5% remains unchanged. We are also now expecting growth in client fund interest revenues to increase $55 million to $65 million compared with our prior forecasted increase of $45 million to $55 million. The total impact from the client fund extended investment strategy is now expected to be up $45 million to $55 million compared to the prior forecast increase of $35 million to $45 million. The details of this forecast can be found in the supplemental slides on our Investor Relations website. As a result of the growth in pass-through revenues, we have also updated our margin forecast, and now anticipate our consolidated adjusted EBIT margin to contract approximately 50 basis points compared to our previously forecasted contraction of 25 to 50 basis points from 19.8% in fiscal year 2017. Overall, as our investments begin to make an impact, and we lap the easier compares from fiscal year 2017, we continue to anticipate a stronger finish as the year progresses. At a segment level, due to the pass-through pressure, we now anticipate PEO margins to be flat to down 25 basis points compared to our previous forecast of up 25 to 50 basis points. And we continue to anticipate margin contraction in Employer Services of 50 to 75 basis points, which includes approximately 60 basis points of pressure from acquisitions, costs and FX. Adjusting to the anticipated benefits of U.S. corporate tax reform, we now expect our forecasted adjusted effective tax rate of fiscal year 2018 to be 26.9% compared to the 31.7%. This benefit is primarily attributable to the lower blended federal corporate statutory rate of 28.1% for fiscal year 2018. Accordingly, we now expect growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share of 12% to 13% compared to our prior forecast of 5% to 7%. This forecast does not contemplate any further share buybacks beyond anticipated dilution related to equity compensation plans. However, it remains our intent to continue to return excess cash to shareholders, subject to market conditions. Before moving to Q&A, I would like to touch briefly on our long-standing cash allocation strategy, which involves reinvesting in the business, pursuing acquisitions and returning capital to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks in that order. As I said earlier, we currently participate – anticipate an adjusted effective tax rate of 26.9% for fiscal year 2018. And while new IRS guidance or interpretations may change things, we currently anticipate a future effective tax rate excluding any possible onetime items of 25% to 26% beyond fiscal year 2018. Clearly, we are one of the beneficiaries of U.S. corporate tax reform. And while this offers us additional financial flexibility going forward, our priorities, which have delivered strong total shareholder return performance to our shareholders, remain unchanged. So with that, I will turn it over to the operator to take your questions.