Earnings Labs

Deluxe Corporation (DLX)

Q1 2008 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 24, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the First Quarter 2008 Deluxe Corporation Earnings Conference Call. My name is Karen and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question and answer session towards the end of this conference. (Operator instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Mr. Terry Peterson, Vice President, Investor Relations and Chief Accounting Officer. Please proceed.

Terry Peterson

President

Thank you, Karen. Welcome to Deluxe Corporation's 2008 first quarter earnings call. I'm Terry Peterson, Deluxe's Vice President of Investor Relations and Chief Accounting Officer. Joining me on the call today are Lee Schram, Deluxe's Chief Executive Officer, and Rick Greene, Deluxe's Chief Financial Officer. Lee, Rick and I will take your questions from analysts after the prepared comments. At that time the operator will instruct you how to ask a question. In accordance with Regulation FD, this call is open to all interested parties. A replay of the call will be available via the telephone and Deluxe's web site. I will provide instructions for accessing the replay at the conclusion of our teleconference. Before I begin, let me make this brief cautionary statement. Comments made today regarding financial estimates and projections and any other statements addressing management's intentions and expectations regarding the company's future performance are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. As such, these comments are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual future results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information about various factors that could cause actual results to differ from those projected are contained in the news release that we issued this morning and on the company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. In addition, the financial and statistical information that will be reviewed during this call is addressed in greater detail in today's press release, which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our web site, www.deluxe.com and was furnished to the SEC on the Form 8-K filed this morning. In particular, any non-GAAP financial measures are reconciled to the comparable GAAP financial measures in the press release. Now, I will turn the call over to Lee Schram, Deluxe's CEO.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Terry, and good morning everyone. In spite of even more challenging economic conditions than expected in the quarter, we were able to successfully deliver on our financial commitments. We reported revenues slightly better than the middle of our expected range and earnings per share at the high-end of our range. Individual segment revenue also was in line with our outlook. We made progress on our new revenue expansion initiatives, continued to stabilize margins in our core check businesses, continued to deliver on our $225 million cost reduction program and made planned investments in e-commerce, verticalization and merchandising for our Small Business Services segment and in loyalty, retention, monitoring and protection solutions for Financial Services. These investments are expected to drive revenue growth in the second half of the year and beyond. We unveiled our new corporate brand identity and have received extremely positive feedback. We also made two very small acquisitions so far this year in the custom full color and logo services spaces, both areas that we expect to grow in double digits in the future. We also repurchased almost $14 million in shares in the quarter. Finally, we continue to better align the company on our strategic direction and drive clear accountability within this framework. In a few minutes, I will discuss more details around our recent progress and next steps. But first, Rick will cover our financial performance.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Lee. Earlier today, we reported diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of $0.53, which was at the upper end of the range of our previously communicated outlook. Revenue for the quarter came in at $381.2 million, which registered slightly towards the upper end of our outlook. While we continue to see the impact of economic conditions in our Small Business Services segment, check volume in our Financial Services segment remained strong, increasing almost 2% from last quarter. We also saw solid growth in the custom, full color, digital and web-to-print space. Operating performance once again benefited from continued execution on our cost reduction initiatives, as we achieved our targeted reductions for the quarter and included planned investments in key revenue growth initiatives. Operating cash flow was slightly better than our expectation as solid earnings and continued progress with our working capital initiatives led to operating cash flow of $30 million for the quarter. In the first quarter of 2007, we reported diluted earnings per share of $0.68. Those results included the benefit of higher revenue, including $3 million of direct checks revenue delayed at the end of 2006 due to weather, as well as lower delivery-related expenses and limited investment spending. Companywide revenue in the first quarter totaled $381.2 million, down 5.6% from 2007. Economic softness negatively impacted volume in our Small Business Services segment in 2008. Also, as we have previously noted, the prior year benefited by $3 million from the shift of revenues in direct checks due to weather-related delays at the end of 2006, $3 million of industrial packaging revenues prior to the divestiture of that product line and non-recurring revenue from significant bank conversion activity. Gross margin for the quarter was 61.7% of revenue, down 1.3 points from 2007. Improvements in manufacturing productivity…

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Rick. I will continue my comments with the perspective on our overall enterprise objects for 2008, highlight each of our three segments including how we are progressing against our key initiatives and close with the progress update on our cost takeout program. At the enterprise level, we have established objectives in four key areas for 2008, including focusing on our customers, growing revenue, improving business processes and improving learning and our culture. We are focused on our customers with passion and precision as we expand and optimize product and service offerings. As we continue to transform Deluxe, we're shifting our emphasis to revenue growth through accelerating and building out better value propositions for our customers, while still maintaining a laser focus on cost, particularly in a period of economic churn. Business process improvement remains a cornerstone of our strategy to deliver sustainable and profitable growth by streamlining, standardizing and improving innovation and efficiencies in everything we do. Finally, we are committed to building a highly engaged winning team and a growth culture grounded in continuous improvement with faster speed to market and a stronger sense of urgency and adaptability to change. Early in the first quarter, we pulled our key leaders and field sales team together to build on our momentum exiting 2007 and to ensure and accelerate alignment as we continued to transform the company. Our reinvention focuses not only on how we can help our customers run and protect their business, but also grow their business. Our focus on customer growth starts with repositioning Deluxe's brand framework released in the first quarter to drive emotional attachment, distinctive customer experiences and proof of our ability to grow loyal customers and strengthen their business performance. We framed how customer experience requirements leverage our position in Financial Services and…

Operator

Operator

(Operator instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Charles Strauzer with CJS Securities. Please proceed. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Hi, good morning everyone.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Charlie, good morning. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: If you could just take a little step back and look at the guidance for the balance of the year and given the Q2 guidance, Terry and Rick and everyone, what has kind of given you the confidence in the back half of the year that you are going to get to the full-year guidance? Give me a little more color on that if you can.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: –: –: –: Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: –:

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

I would say we're working exceptionally hard. I have been commenting for several quarters now that I believe that all great companies are constantly looking at organic ways to grow, acquisitive ways to grow, partnering ways to grow. We have brought a tremendous amount of new talent into the company that we believe is helping us move the whole organic, acquisitive and partnering looks that we are doing today and what have we done? I mean, we partnered up, as we have mentioned, with Website Pros. I mentioned that we did a couple of small tuck-in acquisitions so far this year, adding to our full color capability and really getting into the whole logo design services space. So, I would say that our process is, again, what Rick outlined in the use of capital, is we are organically investing. I think we have been consistent with that. We are looking at how do we extend and really work the great partnerships that we have and then how do we also look for small to medium-sized tuck-in acquisitions that will help us as well. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Great. Thanks, Lee. Just one quick housekeeping for Rick. What was the amount of shares bought back in the quarter again?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

It was $13.9 million. The total shares bought back were 580,000. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from the line of John Kraft. Please proceed. John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: Good morning, gentlemen.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Hi, John.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Good morning. John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I did want to follow-up on the confidence and the outlook question. Just to clarify here, as you look out to the year, you certainly said that you expect economic conditions to remain challenging sort of consistent at least into Q2. But, are you expecting an improvement in overall economic conditions in the back half, or is that the difference in your change of outlook this time, that now you expect it to basically remain kind of flat for the whole year?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

–: –: –: John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: Okay, I think that's fair. And specifically for some of these revenue initiatives, the e-commerce initiative, is the primary goal here to attract new Internet users, or is the goal to lower distribution costs or both?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

–: –: John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Again, as I mentioned in my comments, we expect approximately a 35% tax rate for the year. John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: 35, sorry I missed that. And do you have a targeted debt level for end of the year '08?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

As we mentioned, the priorities for cash as we continue to look at investing organically and with small and medium-sized strategic acquisitions to help us, we feel very comfortable with the level of debt, particularly given the amount of cash flow that we do generate. With our current outlook and we have approximately $72 million currently drawn on the credit facilities, we will generate enough cash flow to continue to pay that down by the end of the year. But, we are not specifically targeting a debt level by the end of the year. John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: Okay, that's fair. And then just could you also remind me when specifically in the quarter the divestiture of the industrial packaging business anniversary?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Late in January, John, of 2007. John Kraft – D.A. Davidson: Late January, okay great, and nice work on the bank win.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, John.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jamie Clement with Sidoti & Co. Please proceed. Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: –:

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I think it depends on the initiative to some extent, Jamie. But, yes, I think what we're doing here and we spent a little bit of time on it in the first quarter and I really talked about it in my shareholder letter, is that we are getting stronger at creating that true product management capability, which is everything from going and working with the customer to putting a great process behind it of getting the right people inside Deluxe then involved with making sure that we are testing and piloting and then really listening to the customer and then really launching the product launch. So, I think some of them require a little bit longer time frames for depending on which customer they are, whether they are small business owners or they are financial institutions or even some of our consumers, because we launched some new initiatives there. So, Jamie, all I would argue is that it depends a little bit on those audiences. But, I would tell you that we are getting smarter at it, we are getting better at it, and that is why we are becoming more confident that when we put these things out there that we are able to get the promise of them, so to speak, as we put them in place. Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: Yes, and if could just editorialize for a second, I mean I think that one of the concerns that people have is that they are concerned that this is maybe a "if we build it they will come" situation. And I mean it seems that with the piloting and the testing and all that kind of stuff that you have done, it sounds like you have an appropriate level of confidence in the second half with respect to those things.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

–: Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: Sure. A follow-up question on just reinvesting in the business, actually looking outside the company, obviously Johnson Group has been a success. I think that the terms you used were potential small and medium-sized acquisitions. If I remember correctly, your two credit facilities mature 2009 and 2010. When you say small to medium, are you talking about businesses that could be purchased within the guidelines of those credit facilities?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: Okay.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

–: Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: –:

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Correct. Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: Okay. So 55% to 60% of that, I'm not breaking out my calculator, but you are basically talking $40 million to realize in the second half, right, ballpark?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Once all implemented at the end of the year, you mean, Jamie? Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: –:

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

That is right. Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: Okay. And then, what is it as of now, another what is it, 50 in 2009?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

That is right. Jamie Clement – Sidoti & Co.: Am I right? Okay, so thank you very much.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Jamie.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Piyush Sharma with Longbow Research. Piyush Sharma – Longbow Research: Good morning guys. Piyush Sharma – Longbow Research: Firstly, I know you guys had mentioned the new initiatives will benefit Financial Services segment by about 2% to 4% on the top line this year. But, how do you quantify the impact of your initiatives and small business services revenues specifically in the second half of this year?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

We haven't specifically, other than to try to give you what we said in the year in terms of the total guidance being kind of a flat revenue stream for the full year, and you've got a sense of where we have been the first quarter and the comments we had around the second quarter. So I think that is the way to think about it, Piyush. We have not specifically given a number at this point and we're not planning on doing that right now. Piyush Sharma – Longbow Research: Okay. And then secondly, just a housekeeping question, could you give us your fixed versus variable cost breakup again? Also how different is the composition fixed versus variable in the small business segment that is if it is at all?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: –: Piyush Sharma – Longbow Research: Okay. And then finally, you guys have talked about repurchases, of course, and I know that this question has been asked before, but have you guys given thought again to your dividend payout? In these five years, your payout has gone from about 40% to about 35% now.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Given any thought to … Piyush Sharma – Longbow Research: Dividend payout, increasing dividend payout.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Piyush, that is something that our Board reviews on a quarterly basis and we look at metrics regarding that. But, at the present time, we have no intention of changing that. And particularly, you look at the dividend yield where we are today at right around 5%, it is still a fairly attractive dividend yield. Piyush Sharma – Longbow Research: Sure. All right, thank you guys.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Hamilton with RBC. Please proceed sir. Mike Hamilton – RBC: Good morning everyone. First one detail for Rick, you mentioned in your comments anticipation of some discrete tax events in '08. Is there anything worth noting in there in terms of timing or what will be going on?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

We mentioned that as discrete tax events in the second quarter, in talking about the second quarter versus 2007 that our effective tax rate will be slightly lower in the second quarter due to some discrete tax events this year. Mike Hamilton – RBC: Slightly lower than last year's rate?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

That is correct. Mike Hamilton – RBC: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: Mike Hamilton – RBC: Is the potential there for SG&A to be not materially higher than the first quarter number by the time we get to fourth quarter?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: Mike Hamilton – RBC: That's right. And then just finally on that to make sure I've beaten it to death, you'd anticipate that the majority of the leverage comes off the SG&A line?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: Mike Hamilton – RBC: Fair enough. I appreciate the help. Thank you, guys.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mike

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Todd Morgan with Oppenheimer & Co. Please proceed. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: Thank you, good morning.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Todd. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: Hi. I was trying to reconcile the $70 million or so of EBITDA that you reported for the first quarter of this year with kind of a same station or same-store number from last year. I think I need to adjust for the industrial packaging divestiture. I think I also need to adjust for the Direct Check timing difference. But you had talked about a pretty good flow-through margin there. Can you suggest the number I should use?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

No, we don't disclose specific margins within any of our business segments. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: Okay. I guess it was about a 30% EBITDA margin for the year last year. I am assuming something like that is what I should be thinking about here?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

–: –: Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: –:

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

That is why Rick has done a good job of highlighting that, so that gives the investor a better peak on how to really think about it operationally. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: All right. And I guess if I'm looking at that, call it $10 million difference for argument's sake, can you guys give me a sense of how much of that difference is made up of increased investments in some of the productivity things you talked about and what portion of that is related to Direct Checks or whatever else that may be a little bit slower than last year?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: –: Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

That is not something we have specifically identified as well. But, the only way I can leave it for you is that it is a much bigger number in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the first quarter of 2007. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: Okay. All right. Moving on then, I guess the revolving credit balance is probably up a couple of million. Is that the difference in the debt levels between this quarter and last quarter?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, as I mentioned, our debt was up about $4 million from the end of 2007, and that would be based on our draw on the facility given our first quarter payment for incentive compensation that we had planned, as well as the share repurchase that we did in the quarter. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: All right. And the last question, you talked about the flat check delivery implementation program. Can you give me a sense of where you stand, how far along that is, and when that would be complete?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

The way to think about this is we started with this back when the Postal Service changed their rates in May and we're going to continue on, and we have improved the process and we will keep improving the process. But I won't give you an end date at this point. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: But is it a question of needing to acquire and install more equipment or just simply convert processes?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

It is both. It is continuing to get better at our process, and it is just something that we expected to do from the outset. We expected this to be a conversion, initially to get it out there more on what we call a manual basis and then continue to fully automate it. I just think it is we are continuing to execute there and as we do obviously, it will improve our delivery capabilities and also improve our cost structure. Todd Morgan – Oppenheimer & Co.: Okay, good. Well, thanks for the help. Good luck.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Todd.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Smith with SCM Advisors. Please proceed. Chris Smith – SCM Advisors: Good morning. Thanks for taking the call.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Hi, Chris. Chris Smith – SCM Advisors : Just one question and then a couple of follow-ups. Just to confirm, the incentive comp in Q1 was $19.7 million, is that right?

Terry Peterson

President

No, that was the increase from last year. Chris Smith – SCM Advisors: Okay, that is the delta.

Terry Peterson

President

Also on the cash flow.

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

The payout of it.

Terry Peterson

President

The payout was the increase over what we paid out last year. Chris Smith – SCM Advisors: Okay, thanks. It sounds like at least my interpretation on the last call was that you were expecting to pay down the entire revolver balance by the end of the year, and it sounds like this year that may not be or is not necessarily the case anymore.

Terry Peterson

President

–: –: Chris Smith – SCM Advisors: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

I think your earlier question was, do you have enough capacity within the revolver to do this, and I think my answer was twofold. It was, I don't think we need to do something the size of NEBS, which is bigger than that, and yet – and my answer then is, yes, I think we would be able to stay within that capacity. So I did not give a specific number on that. I think that is the way I would like to leave it in terms of thinking about it. Chris Smith – SCM Advisors: Okay. Last question. In terms of cost save, just to bring us current as far as cost saves realized, I think when you announced the additional $75 million of cost save opportunity on the third quarter call, I think at that time you said that 60% of the original $150 million was expected to be realized in '07 and 40% in '08. Where are we on that original $150 million as far as realized and yet to be realized?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

You heard that correctly and as we mentioned, with what we accomplished here in the first quarter, we are on track with delivering the full $225 million, which includes that original piece of the $150 million that was remaining in 2008, plus the incremental $75 million. So what we had planned and where we said we would get a total of $70 million of the $225 million this year, it included the remaining piece of the $150 million. And in the first quarter, we delivered to our targeted amount to achieve the full $70 million.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

–: –: Chris Smith – SCM Advisors: Okay, great. Thanks.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Operator, I think we have time for one more question.

Operator

Operator

And your final question comes from the line of Hardin Bethea with I(dea) Group. Please proceed. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: Hey, Lee.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Hardin, long time no talk. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: Yes, how are you?

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

Great. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

The $19.7 million I believe is what you may be referring to? That is actually a cash payment related to 2007's performance. So that was not something that was charged or expensed in this quarter. That was on our balance sheet at the end of last year. It was just simply funded this quarter. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

No, that payment was tied to our operating performance in relation to our targets related to our incentive plans. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: –:

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

I can go back and help you here. If you remember, we had very low variable compensation payouts in 2005 and 2006 because we as a Company were not executing. When we performed in 2007, we increased the amount of variable compensation. It is important because in order for us to attract and keep talent here, obviously we need to pay people. So that's the increase from 2007 over 2006 and then therefore the payout of that comes in the first quarter 2008 is the way to think about it. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: Right. So I mean is it tied to operating performance solely, or is there a share price perspective [ph]?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

–: Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: In 2008, what component or how should we look at that plan as I guess delivering against that plan and the comparable metrics that might be paid in '09?

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

I think the way to think about it is quite simple. We expect to have a variable compensation program and to deliver to that variable compensation program through our performance. So we haven't and we won't get into specifics on how we're doing it this year on the call. But I think the way you want to think about it is we're not planning for that to go away in 2008. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: Got it. What is the current rate on your credit facility? LIBOR plus what?

Terry Peterson

President

–: Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: –: –:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

That is 4.8% at the moment, yes. Hardin Bethea – I(dea) Group: –:

Terry Peterson

President

–:

Rick Greene

Chief Financial Officer

So it is pretty straight calculation, just 50% of net income and fund the dividends.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

That is something else that is out on public record that you can take a peak at. I think if there are any clarifying questions, you can certainly reach Terry. We need to stop here. Unfortunately, we're getting long at the call here. Thank you, Hardin.

Operator

Operator

I would now like to turn the presentation over to Lee Schram for closing remarks.

Lee Schram

Chief Executive Officer

I just want to close by saying we are pleased with our first quarter operational and financial performance and I hope you get a sense and we know it too, we have a lot of work to do. Our objective again is to continue to execute and improve what we're doing each day and deliver against the commitments we've put out there. We really appreciate your participating today and your questions, and we're going to get back to work and we look forward to providing another positive progress report on our next earnings call.

Terry Peterson

President

This is a reminder that a replay of this call will be available until May 1 by dialing 888-286-8010. When instructed, provide the access code 67339464. The company slides are archived in the Investor Relations section of Deluxe's web site at www.deluxe.com. Again, thank you for joining us and have a good afternoon.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation and you may now disconnect. Good day.