Earnings Labs

Deluxe Corporation (DLX)

Q2 2012 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 26, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second quarter 2012 Deluxe Corporation earnings conference call. My name is Tiffany, and I’ll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question and answer session towards the end of the conference. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this call is being recorded for repay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Johnson, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Jeff Johnson

Management

Thank you, Tiffany. Welcome to Deluxe Corporation’s 2012 second quarter earnings call. I am Jeff Johnson, Deluxe’s Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Joining me on the call today are Lee Schram, Deluxe’s Chief Executive Officer, and Terry Peterson, Deluxe’s Chief Financial Officer. Lee, Terry and I will take 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 telephone and Deluxe’s website. 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 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 in the company’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2011. 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 news and investor relations section of our website at deluxe.com, and was furnished to the FCC 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’ll turn the call over to Lee.

Lee Schram

Management

Thank you Jeff and good morning everyone. We had another outstanding quarter following an outstanding first quarter performance. We are well positioned as we enter the second half of the year, to grow revenue for the year in the mid-single digits, despite the continued sluggish economic environment. We reported second quarter revenue and adjusted earnings per share well above our outlook. Revenue grew 7% over the prior year, driven by Small Business Services revenue growth of 15%, of which 5% came from the PsPrint and OrangeSoda acquisitions. This quarterly growth rate matched the first quarter of 2012 for the strongest we have reported since we acquired NEBS in 2004. Checks and Forms both performed better than our expectations, and Marketing Solutions and Other Service’s revenue grew 30% over the prior year. Adjust diluted EPS grew 13% over a strong prior year. We also generated solid operating cash flow, we’ve not drawn on our credit facility during the quarter, and we increased our cash position $16 million from last December. Encouragingly, we continued to see more stabilizations than expected in secular check decline rates with financial institution consumer declines less than 5% in the quarter, which is the second quarter in a row we have seen significantly lower decline rates. We enhanced our marketing solutions and Other Services offers and capabilities with the acquisition of OrangeSoda. We also invested more in brand awareness to help better position our marketing solutions and Other Services offering, and drive future revenue growth. Further, we extended our process improvement and cost reduction initiatives while driving strong operating cash flow as we continue to transform Deluxe. In a few minutes I will discuss more details around our recent progress and next steps, but first, Terry will cover our financial performance.

Terry Peterson

Management

Thanks, Lee. Earlier today, we reported diluted earnings per share for the second quarter of $0.82, which included restructuring and transaction related cost of $0.03 per share. Excluding these costs, adjusted EPS of $0.85 was well above the upper end of our outlook, and 13% higher than the $0.75 reported in the second quarter of 2011. Strong revenues and favorable product mix drove better than expected EPS performance, and more than offset an increase in variable compensation expense. The restructuring charges are primarily for employee severance and infrastructure consolidations, while the transaction cost related to the OrangeSoda acquisition. Revenue for the quarter came in at $371 million, which was well above the range of our outlook, and up 7% from 2011. All three of our business segments performed well. Small Business Services revenue of $233 million, included $10.5 million from the PsPrint and OrangeSoda acquisitions, and grew 15% versus last year on a reported basis. While we continued to operate in a weak economic environment, we delivered growth in marketing solutions and Other Services, our Safeguard distributor, dealer and major accounts channels, and in checks and forms. Financial Services revenue of $86 million declined only 1% versus the second quarter of last year, and reflected a lower-than-expected secular check decline rate of less than 5%. The impact of lower check orders was mostly offset by higher revenue per order, higher non-check services revenue, and the addition of Citizens Financial Group. Direct Checks revenue of $52 million was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Gross margin for the quarter was 65.6% of revenue, up 0.5 percentage points from 2011. Benefits from price increases, improvements in manufacturing productivity, delivery initiatives, and product mix were partly offset by increased delivery rates, material costs, and performance base compensation expense. SG&A expense increased $10.3 million…

Lee Schram

Management

Thank you, Terry. I will continue my comments with an update on our key revenue growth area, Marketing Solutions and Other Services, including perspectives on our recent OrangeSoda acquisition and insights on the next steps for improving our brand awareness. I will then highlight progress in each of our three segments, including a perspective on what we hope to accomplish during the balance of 2012. We have segment growth opportunities in Marketing Solutions and Other Services, including for small businesses, [inaudible] design, web services, social media, web-to-print, search engine marketing and optimization, payroll and fraud and security services. And for financial institutions, customer acquisition, risk management, and profitability offers. We will continue to access potential small to medium size acquisition that complement our large customer bases with a focus on Marketing Solutions and Other Services. Here is an update on the four sub-categories framework we introduced on our first quarter call for Marketing Solutions and Other Services. First, small business marketing is expected to represent approximately 41% of total Marketing Solutions and Other Services revenue, with expected organic growth rates this year in the high teens, although expected actual growth rates will be higher this year, closer to the upper 30s, given the PsPrint acquisition in July of 2011. Key growth initiatives include scaling web-to-print by cross-selling to our customer base, and adding new customers through major account, distributors and partners. Second, web services, which includes logo and web design, web hosting, SEM, SEO, e-mail marketing, social, and payroll services, is expected to represent approximately 30% of total Marketing Solutions and Other Services revenue, with expected growth rates this year in the 40%, driven by the OrangeSoda acquisition. Key growth initiatives include adding wholesale [inaudible] and major accounts, cross-selling to our retail base through bundled present packages, and adding new…

Operator

Operator

Okay, (Operator instructions). And it looks like your first question will be coming from Charles Strauzer from CJS Securities. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Thanks, good morning.

Lee Schram

Management

Hi, John. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Just if you can delve into the check decline rates being better a little bit more, get a little more color there. Just as you talk to the banks and stuff, what do you think is kind of driving those – that a couple of quarters now that it has been a few base points that you’ve expected. What do you think the drivers are behind that?

Lee Schram

Management

I think that the thing that happened this quarter we mentioned in the comments, Charlie, we actually saw – you know, in the first quarter if you remember we actually saw the community banks perform a little bit better than the nationals, all though they were both lower than our expectations. This quarter they were more in line with each other, so you think about that less than 5% that was pretty consistent with both of them. What we know in pockets, there are in the nationals, for example, we know that some of our customers are opening new branches, and because they are opening new branches we are seeing some actual growth in pockets that we haven’t seen historically. We also know that in the case of the community business, you know, community – you know, FI’s that we have seen kind of more consistency across the various, what we call, regions of the United States. So, some of those were areas, again, the southeast, the west, the northeast, that were probably most hardest hit by the, you know, the recession. So, we are seeing more consistency there, we are constantly talking to our banks about, you know, how and why we have seen the trends. We actually seem to have, you now, a lot, you know, inside ourselves on the trends that we are seeing, we are trying to work through those, but at this point, Charlie, we that is what we know, and that’s kind of the perspective that we have at this point – obviously very encouraging for us.

Terry Peterson

Management

Yes, the other thing that I would add, Charlie, too, is the housing numbers have been better since the first half of the year, and that typically will drive us and check orders as well. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Excellent, and if we could shift it a little bit more of a longer term view, and Lee, we talk about from time to time is, you know, the ability to cross sell some of these new services across, you know, various platforms – you know, what do you kind of see in the new cross selling abilities? I know that it was kind of always been a work in progress, and you thought you weren’t there yet, but are you making progress on that front too?

Lee J. Schram

Analyst · CJS Securities

We are clearly making progress – I mean, on of the exciting things is that we introduced – I’ll give you an example, we introduced the orange soda blend product into our retail call centers actually this week, and we already have small business owners that are signed up for the blend offer. So, yes, we are working our tails off to try to get as many as these offers as we have that we have added to that marketing solutions and other services into our platform, and trying to get those out. I – what I would tell you, honestly, Charlie, is it is a work in progress. We have a lot of work to go here where we want to be, and you can look at that as a short coming, I look at it as a huge opportunity for the company. We are getting better, we are performing better, and we have an opportunity to do better on bringing these services that we have out to our, you know, small business customers. One of the things that think is going to help, and I really would like to just give a little color on the brand, like I see in script, but – and not really spend a lot more on that until it hits the market here in the third quarter, but we are really – our belief is that the better we can do with bring that brand in – improve brand perspective and putting that out in front of small businesses, we thing that is also going to help, you know, with how we cross sell and the, you know, our ability there. Obviously the proof will be as we, you know, as we look at this and measure it from there, but I like to think we are improving, and yet I would like to think we also got a lot of opportunity out here. Charles Strauzer – CJS Securities: Great, thank you very much.

Lee J. Schram

Analyst · CJS Securities

You’re welcome, Charlie.

Operator

Operator

Okay, and it looks like your net question will be from John Kraft from D. A. Davidson. John Kraft – D. A. Davidson & Co.: Hey guys, congrats on the progress, especially given the environment.

Lee Schram

Management

Thank you, John. John Kraft – D. A. Davidson & Co.: I wanted to just talk about a few of the cost side of the equation here, a few things. First of all, Terry, you said something about closing a custom direct printing facility. When did say that was going to happen?

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst · D

We are targeting to have that completed sometime by early 2013. John Kraft – D. A. Davidson & Co.: Okay, and then on the increased delivery expenses, can you remind me that percent of your FI’s are using the flat packaging?

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst · D

Percent of our FI’s is 100. John Kraft – D. A. Davidson & Co.: Oh, everybody – well, but it hasn’t been adopted across all of them, is that…

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst · D

Yes, all of our FI’s are and have the flat packaging, and have for several years at this point. There are sometimes that we do send out – if a customer orders several boxes of checks we might put that in a box and send that out UPS, but after seeing them double, all of the FI’s have adopted the FI packaging. John Kraft – D. A. Davidson & Co.: Interesting, okay, I didn’t realize that. And then on the small business side of things, you said that the impacting in the quarter there was some [inaudible] print acquisition expenses and some higher sales commissions. I guess, where do you see the margin on that segment trend ending in the near term, and give a longer term target?

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst · D

You know, we’re still pretty consistent in terms of revenues and the margin, and margin potential in that business – you know, we still invest quite a bit into the s-small business segment, and we [inaudible] universal target, kind of that upper teens, that is kind of where we see that margin for, you know, not only, you know, the short term year, but I would say in the mid-term as well.

Lee Schram

Management

And John, it’s always going to be a little lumpy here, you know – I mean, when we, you know, obviously given the performance that we had, we had – we made some comments around arranging, or increasing our performance instead of compensation, and so, we have to put that in, and we allocate everything out, as you know, to our segments, we don’t keep anything at the corporate level. So, you are going to cease, but you are also going to see some spikes when you make decisions to spend a little bit more on the brand area, but I think Terry said it well, we expect, you know, high teens, and you know, the performance is exactly in line with where we expect this point at time – we are actually very pleased with the small business margins and where they are at and where they are going. John Kraft – D. A. Davidson & Co.: Great, that’s helpful. That’s all that I got guys, thanks.

Lee Schram

Management

You’re welcome, John.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Okay, and it looks like your next question is from Jamie Clement with Sidoti and Company. James Clement – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Good morning, gentlemen.

Lee Schram

Management

Hi, Jamie. James Clement – Sidoti & Company, LLC: I was wondering if you might give a little bit more clarity in terms of the allocations of CapEx and how that's changed over the last couple of years as you build your services offerings. Are those business, I mean obviously, it's different from the current manufacturing business, but how much capital are those businesses requiring as kind of a percentage of a total over the course of the year? I mean, do you have a rough number you could give us?

Lee J. Schram

Analyst · Sidoti and Company

Here's the way I would think about strategically how we position in capital. If you think about the marketing solutions and other services, where we're getting – I mentioned in the script, Jamie, that we're going to have some bigger rollouts in the second half of the year in the wholesale area. So that's an area we've had to put some more server capacity in, in order to really be able to ramp those rollouts. We look at those as a very positive use of capital. We also have capital that we mentioned in the web to print area. If you think about getting to that what I call best in class opportunity there, we're setting dollars on that. We're setting dollars on e-commerce and capital. That, and those are, they were more on putting the flat packaging several years ago. They're now shifting more to I would call it more revenue generating opportunities. James Clement – Sidoti & Company, LLC: That's what I was asking was more the shift. That's what I was curious about your capital spending has been, you know, it's been pretty stable.

Lee J. Schram

Analyst · Sidoti and Company

But I also would add that as we integrate and continue to get cost out and especially in the fulfillment area, there are some other capital plays that we have there. But that is clearly to a lesser degree than what we've historically done. So much more of the capital is going towards revenue generating plays than not. Terry, anything you want to add?

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst · Sidoti and Company

Yes, the other thing that I would add kind of related to this, but beyond a bit of capital is that when we invest in new products that are being developed organically that might require say technology investments, typically because we don’t know how successful they will be in the marketplace, we actually expense those. So there's kind of capital types of expenditures that are actually expense. So many of our initiatives don’t even show up in the capital buckets. James Clement – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Understood, and last question is a follow-up on Charley's. The rate of check decline or check usage being sub 5%, was that excluding the citizens and that was excluding the price? That was just pure unit?

Lee Schram

Management

That's user retail from my retail days at MCR. That is a same source sales approach. So that's the way to think about it and that's how we look at the business. So yes, it excludes. That's unit decline.

Terry Peterson

Management

And volume only, no price consideration there.

Lee Schram

Management

Right, and no citizens. James Clement – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay, well done. Thank you very much.

Lee Schram

Management

You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Okay, and so there are no more questions. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Lee Schram for closing remarks.

Lee J. Schram

Analyst · CJS Securities

I just want to thank everybody for your participation, and thanks for the questions that we got today. And as I consistently kind of say each quarter, we're going to get back to work now and we look forward to providing a positive progress report on our next earning's call. And I'll turn it over to Jeff for the wrap up.

Jeff Johnson

Management

Thank you, Lee. This is a reminder that a replay of this call will be available until August 2nd by dialing 888-286-8010. When instructed, provide the access code 59901479. The accompanying slides are archived in the news and investor relations section of Deluxe's website at Deluxe.com. Again, thank you for joining us. Have a good afternoon.

Operator

Operator

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