Earnings Labs

Deluxe Corporation (DLX)

Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 25, 2013

$30.26

-0.79%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q1 2013 Deluxe Corporation Earnings Conference Call. My name is Allison, and I will be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jeff Johnson, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed, sir.

Jeff Johnson

Analyst

Thank you, Allison. Welcome to Deluxe Corporation's 2013 First 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 31, 2012. 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 on our Investor Relations website at deluxe.com/investor, and was furnished to the SEC on a 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 J. Schram

Analyst

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. Deluxe delivered an outstanding quarter to start the year. We reported revenue and adjusted earnings per share above the high end of our outlook. Revenue grew almost 3% over the prior year quarter, even though there were 2 less business days compared to last year. Small Business Services' revenue grew 8%. Checks and forms both performed better than our expectations, and marketing solutions and other services revenues grew 22% over the prior year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 3% over a very strong prior year. We generated solid operating cash flow, and we were not drawn on our credit facility during the quarter, increasing our balance sheet cash position $25 million from last December. And we repurchased $13 million in shares. We continued our new brand awareness campaign to help better position our products and services offerings and drive future revenue growth. We also advanced process improvements and delivered on our cost reduction commitment in the quarter. 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 D. Peterson

Analyst

Thank you, Lee. Earlier today, we reported diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of $0.89, which included losses of $0.02 per share from restructuring charges. Excluding these costs, adjusted EPS of $0.91 exceeded the upper end of our outlook and was 3.4% higher than the $0.88 reported in the first quarter of 2012. The restructuring charges are primarily for employee severance and infrastructure consolidations. Revenue for the quarter came in at $388 million and grew 2.5% over last year despite 2 less business days compared to the first quarter of 2012. All 3 of our business segments performed well. Small Business Services' revenue of $248 million grew 8.1% versus last year on a reported basis but is double digits when considering 2 less business days. While we continue to operate in a weak economic environment, we delivered growth in marketing solutions and other services, checks and in our online Safeguard distributor, major accounts and dealer channels. Financial Services' revenue of $87 million declined 3.8% versus last year but was close to flat when considering 2 less business days. The impact of lower check orders offset the benefits of price increases and higher marketing solutions and other services revenue. Direct Checks' revenue totaled $52 million, which was down 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. This segment was also negatively impacted by 2 less business days. Gross margin for the quarter was 65.6% of revenue, which was down 0.7 points from 2012. Unfavorable product mix and increased material and delivery rates were only partially offset by benefits from price increases and improvements in manufacturing productivity and delivery initiatives. SG&A expense increased $3.3 million in the quarter and was 45.2% of revenue compared to 45.5% of revenue in the same period last year. Increased SG&A in Small Business Services associated with commissions…

Lee J. Schram

Analyst

Thank you, Terry. I will continue my comments with an update on our overall focus and then highlight progress in each of our 3 segments. I will also include throughout a perspective on what we hope to accomplish during the balance of 2013. Our primary focus in 2013 continues to be profitable revenue growth and increasing the mix of marketing solutions and other services revenues. We have created more differentiated, technology-led check offers through investments in automated flat packaging, digital printing and online portals and dashboards. We also have significant growth opportunities in marketing solutions and other services. We will continue to assess potential small- to medium-sized acquisitions that complement our large customer bases, with a focus on marketing solutions and other services. We have strengthened our channels in small business to include financial institutions, online, retail, wholesale, distributors, dealers and major accounts. Deluxe is now more capable of helping small businesses pursue their passion as a trusted provider of a growing suite of products and services of small business needs to market and operate their business, and helping small to mid-sized financial institutions with customer acquisition, risk management and other value-add services offers. Here is an update on our 4 subcategories framework for marketing solutions and other services. We ended the first quarter right in line with our expectations in revenue, with mix in the 4 subcategories, basically in line with our expectations. First, small business marketing is expected to represent approximately 42% of revenue in 2013, with expected growth in the upper-teens this year. We saw strong double-digit growth in the first quarter in the web-to-print space as we cross-sold to our customer base and added new customers through distributors, dealers and major accounts. The second category, web services, which includes logo and web design, web hosting, SEM,…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Charles Strauzer of CJS Securities.

Charles Strauzer - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Two quick questions on -- thanks for all the transparency, by the way, on the various pieces there. But if you look at the organic growth of the quarter -- I know you gave out some of the segment information on a kind of apples-to-apples, normalizing up the different days. But what was the overall organic growth if you do the same?

Lee J. Schram

Analyst

I don't know that we -- I don't know that I know that, Terry. Do you have that number?

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst

The organic growth? The only piece that's not organic this quarter is a little bit from the OrangeSoda acquisition from last year. It's not significant at all. Most of the growth is all organic. In the Small Business Services segment, we had growth of 8.1%. It's still north of 5% for that segment, if you were to just look at the organic piece.

Jeff Johnson

Analyst

And, Charlie, another marker out there for you, I think the number that we calculated with 2 -- with the -- if the 2 days were comparable was a 5.6% growth for the quarter. So we would have been slightly under that on an organic basis, but not a lot. It would have been very strong on an apples-to-apples compare.

Charles Strauzer - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

So still very good in the -- nevertheless?

Jeff Johnson

Analyst

Very good. We're very pleased.

Charles Strauzer - CJS Securities, Inc.

Analyst

And then on the new contract that you won, I know you can't give out too many details obviously yet. But could you maybe rank it in terms of the type of client it is versus maybe some of your other clients in terms of -- was it medium, large? Or is it kind of the upper end of your contract range? Or can you give a little bit more color there?

Lee J. Schram

Analyst

Again, we're really excited about it. Hopefully, at some point here, we'll be able to release the logo. It's a well-known logo. And I would say it's a -- again, it's a nice-sized national opportunity for us. So we're not going to obviously get a whole year's worth of revenue from it. It will -- right now, the timing, as I said in my comments, Charlie, is in the third quarter. But we are really excited about it. I think when we get the logo out there, I think it'll put some excitement on our company, and I think it'll put some excitement out on the street.

Terry D. Peterson

Analyst

Yes. The other thing, too, Charlie, is when we do start producing checks for them, that will benefit both our Financial Services segment, as well as the Small Business Services because they will be going after the DBA, Deluxe Business Advantage program as well. So it'll actually benefit both segments.

Lee J. Schram

Analyst

Yes, that's a great additional comment. Charlie, one of the things we like about this financial institution is they have a very strong focus on small businesses. And again, as you know, that's a key focus area for us as well. So we just think it's a great match with us and this new institution.

Operator

Operator

We have no further questions at this time, so I'd now like to turn the call back over to Lee Schram, CEO.

Lee J. Schram

Analyst

Wow. Only one question. Okay. So let me just close with thanking everybody for participating. And as I normally say, we're going to roll up our sleeves, get back to work, and we look forward to providing another positive progress report on our next call. And I'll turn it over to Jeff for some closing housekeeping.

Jeff Johnson

Analyst

Thank you, Lee. This is a reminder that a replay of this call will be available until May 9 by dialing (888) 286-8010. When instructed, provide the access code 33314252. The accompanying slides are archived in our Investor Relations website at www.deluxe.com/investor. Again, thank you for joining us. Have a great afternoon.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect, and good day.