Good day ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Deluxe Corporation First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ed Merritt, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Takia, and welcome everyone to Deluxe Corporation’s first quarter 2018 earnings call. I’m Ed Merritt, Deluxe’s Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations. Joining me on today’s call is Lee Schram, our Chief Executive Officer; and Keith Bush, our Chief Financial Officer. At the end of today’s prepared remarks, Lee, Keith and I will take questions. I would like to remind you that comments made today regarding financial estimates, projections and management’s intentions and expectations regarding the company’s future performance are forward-looking in nature 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 projections are contained in the press release that we issued this morning, as well as the company’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. Portions of the financial and statistical information that will be reviewed during this call are addressed in more detail in today’s press release, which is posted on our Investor Relations website at deluxe.com/investor. This information was also furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K filed by the company this morning. Any references to non-GAAP financial measures are reconciled to the comparable GAAP financial measures in the press release or as part of our presentation during this call. Now, I’ll turn the call over to Lee.

Thank you, Ed, and good morning, everyone. Deluxe delivered a very strong quarter to start the year. We reported revenue and adjusted earnings per share above the high end of our outlook. Overall, revenue grew 1% from last year driven by small business services growth of 3% with Financial Services flat and Direct Checks declining 10%. On an organic basis revenue declined less than 1% and was in-line with our expectations. Marketing solutions and other services revenues grew more than 12% over the prior year and represented over 39% of total first quarter revenue. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew over 11% from the prior year. We generated strong operating cash flow of $81 million and were drawn about $741 million on our credit facility at the end of the quarter. We renewed our credit facility for another five years and repurchased $20 million in common shares in the quarter. We continued our 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 for the quarter. On March 19, we completed the acquisition of LogoMix, which further enhances our small business services, marketing solutions, and other services products set by adding more logo and web services capabilities. Additionally, we are working on another acquisition in the treasury management space, which we expect to close in the second quarter. In a few minutes, I will discuss more details around our recent progress and next steps before I turn the call over to Keith to cover our financial performance. If you did not see our second release issued this morning, here are some highlights. We announced my intention to retire from Deluxe. I have agreed to serve as CEO during the succession process to provide continuity and leadership to facilitate a thoughtful, well-planned, and deliberate transition process. A CEO succession committee of the board has been formed and has engaged a leading executive search firm to assist in the succession planning process, which will consider both internal and external candidates. This is the right time for this transition on many fronts. With $2 billion in expected record revenues for 2018, and a strong strategic and financial momentum, I can begin to explore new interests and opportunities knowing that we have laid the foundation for continued transformational growth and success. It is a true privilege to lead this great company. I look forward to continuing to work with the talented team at Deluxe and with you, our investors, until my successor is named and to provide counsel and support in the transition to new leadership. As I'm not going anywhere yet, and will be here for a while, you can count on me to be working as hard as ever to ensure we continue our great transformational momentum during this transition period. And now, I’ll turn the call over to Keith.

Thanks Lee. On behalf of the entire management team, congratulations on your retirement from Deluxe. We all look forward to working with you throughout this transition process. Now back to the call. Revenue for the quarter came in at $492 million, growing to 0.8% over last year. Organic revenue, which excludes acquisitions, FX, and other noncomparable items declined less than 1% and was in-line with our expectations. Shifting to our segments, small business services revenue of $316 million, grew 2.7%, and 3.5% on a day's adjusted basis. And we delivered continued growth in marketing solutions and other services. From a channel perspective, our online, major accounts, Canada and dealer channels grew. Financial Services revenue of $141 million was about flat on a reported basis, as well as organically, compared to the first quarter of last year. Growth in marketing solutions and other services revenue more than offset the impact of lower check orders. Direct Checks revenue of $35 million was down 10% from last year, ending right on our expectations. From a product and services perspective, Check revenue was $210 million, representing 43% of total revenue. Marketing solutions and other services was $193 million or about 39% of total revenue. And forms and accessories were $89 million or about 18% of total revenue. Gross margin for the quarter was 61.6% of revenue and was down slightly from 2017. The impact of higher delivery and material costs and acquisitions were only partially offset by the benefits of previous price increases and improvements in manufacturing productivity. SG&A expense declined $6 million in the quarter, compared to last year and was well leveraged at 43% of revenue, compared to 44.5% last year. Benefits from our continuing cost-reduction initiatives in all three segments and lower legal expenses more than offset SG&A associated with recent…

Thank you, Keith. I will continue my comments with a recap of the three-year strategic direction outlined on our last earnings call, and then highlight our progress in each of our segments focusing on the three primary MOS key growth areas to provide a perspective of on how we progressed in the first quarter and outline what we expect to accomplish during the balance of the year. For 2018, we expect to deliver continued growth in MOS revenue and a ninth consecutive year of total revenue growth. If achieved, 2018 will mark the first time in the history of Deluxe that our revenue exceeds $2 billion. Additionally, 2018 represents the first year of our three-year goal through 2020 to pivot for faster organic growth and moderately more aggressive acquisitive growth. While accelerating progress towards our three-year strategic goals and growing EBITDA there may be an impact to operating income and GAAP EPS depending on the mix of acquisition growth, including acquisition valuations performance and synergies, and the organic performance of MOS. There is a cost to transform or quickly. So, we may experience small near-term GAAP EPS dilution in 2019 and 2020, but we expect immediate cash flow and cash EPS accretion. We are committed to delivering a plan that we believe enhances shareholder value, while we continue to pivot for faster organic and moderately more aggressive acquisitive revenue growth. We expect to deliver slight organic growth in 2018 and approximately 3% organic growth in both 2019 and 2020. We are also targeting to increase our overall MOS to total company revenue mix to be approximately 45% this year growing to approximately 60% by year-end 2020. To achieve the 60% MOS mix level, we expect to drive more organic growth and make larger investments, principally in data driven marketing and…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Charlie Strauzer with CJS Securities. Your line is now open.

Hi, good morning.

Hi, Charlie.

So, a couple of things, obviously you talked a little bit about the tempering of the organic growth expectation for the year driven by kind of data mix etcetera, you know what would you say would have to happen [indiscernible] go lower again or maybe exceed that new kind of slight organic growth guidance?

I think it’s just a question of the marketing spend and will it get any lower, I think we appropriately put the right range in there Charlie. So, I feel very comfortable with that right now in terms of where we are, you know hitting that overall range that we’ve laid out there, not only within the MOS table, but also obviously for the total company. And what could generate it to go higher is just getting through the pace of CMOs deciding to spend and spend more quickly, and campaigns taking of therefore more quickly within there, and also whether we can get, we’ve already seen a movement in pay for performance. We’ve seen it, we highlighted that today. Can we get that even moving more quickly at this point? And I think what we're seeing is what we’ve talked about earlier Charlie around the lumpiness of some of this staff. Two great solution that we believe we are growing faster the market we believe, we are going to continue to grow faster the market, it’s just this tempering of how fast people spend in the FI’s and what we saw on the quarter is just a pace not what we expected when we first put the initial guidance together for the year.

Got it. And then maybe this is for Keith, but the Deluxe rewards contract that’s lapping, when does that, you know kind of moved passed you from a comp basis?

We’ve lapsed that amount. So, this will be the final quarter that we would see that.

Got it. So, next quarter should be clean. Got it. And then just shifting gears to the check side, Lee talked about some competitive opportunities that could be out there and the check decline rates, you know kind of being more at the higher end of the ranges that you have given in the past and do you see that those rates climbing further in the out years and what are your thoughts on actual competitive biddings, is that a real thing anymore.

We wouldn’t – we guide exactly where we feel it is going to be. You know it from past discussion that we have a lot of ways that we try to get at this, we talk to the financial institutions we try to understand what are they – what is their commitment to the check program. We use a lot of statistical work both internal and external work to try to determine where we think those rates are, and we, I think we’re actually somewhere around 6.5% in the quarter. We just call it seven. So that’s in line with what we expected and seven is the number and we had said earlier, we expected this to pop-up a little bit, I think we talked about in the first quarter or the fourth quarter call and principally just because there is so much out there with this for the consumer it is almost like he or she is almost a confused consumer with all the different electronification things that are out there right now, and with the new payment rail being flown around a lot as well, we just felt that all the indicators that we were seeing and talking to FIs and then some of the statistical nature of the trends we are seeing kind of lead us to that. I can't speak to past right now and this year Charlie, that would be going way too far on a lim [ph] right now, but I don't – we’ve been asked questions where they will ask them to open lower at this point. I think the best they can tell you is that the range that we are at, at this point about the seven. We feel comfortable with and again the great story for us is, as this becomes less a dependency on us it means that small blips in this space don't have the material movement, again remember, analyze every 1%, so if it went from 7% to 8% that would be $2 million in a total year. So – and as far as deals that are out there, yes, we are still competing. We are still seeing opportunities. There are things that are out there. You know banks, you have seen this already from us, banks are inclined, not to generally switch, switch from us, switch from competitors on average, but no there are still things and there are still opportunities that we’re bidding on right now, and we’re and those are not, everybody thinks they are just price, they are not, can you bring me new things with my program? Can you bring me new technologies, new ways of thinking about the check production, new ways of thinking about how to work with my clients, and those are all things that were in the middle of and then thinks that we’re working.

Great. Thank you very much. It’s very helpful.

You’re welcome Charlie.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Chris McGinnis with Sidoti & Company. Your line is now open.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and Lee congratulations on the announcement, even though it is my first call. Quickly, I guess two questions. Just around the 8 million of investments spend related to the data driven and treasury management, can you maybe just talk a little bit about how that’s being spent then also if you spend maybe a little bit more could you help drive those growth rates even higher?

Yes. If you think about what we’re doing within, it really is a strong focus in data driven marketing and Treasury management and what we’re doing is, we’re spending it on sales and marketing to try to get more strategic sales people. I’ll give you great example. We are so fortunate. We got somebody from the industry that we have been working with and the Treasury management space for years. He is a proven expert in treasury solutions and he came on board and its people like that so that they can go out and help as we’re trying to bring more solutions in the marketplace, same thing on the data driven marketing side. We are also expanding in capabilities around our product, as our products evolve in data driven marketing and treasury management Chris, we want to make sure that we’re spending more there. We’re spending more on committing to pay for performance in the data driven marketing space. We’ve had success in that in first Manhattan and we're bringing that also now into the data mix front as well. So, those are examples of where, you know how we're spending. We think it’s smart spending and we think it’s spending that’s going to pay off in the long run for us to have, you know to help us drive more organic growth.

All right, thank you, and if you increase that spend could that help drive that even quicker or you think it is just the appropriate number right now?

I think it’s balanced and I think it’s appropriate. I think if we felt that we could drive this even further, do I think it would drive stuff into 2018, probably not immediate, but more for 2019, but I think we feel very good about where we are in the balance that we have in there, you know if we believe that it makes good sense to continue here, we would do it and we will pull back in other areas is how we’re looking at it.

Great. And then second question, just around the acquisition base revenue for the expectation for the year, you are two thirds of the way there. Any risk on the treasury acquisition maybe not going through, and then just looking at that one-third that you still have further to meet that outlook, any risk to that at all or do you feel pretty comfortable. I know it’s pretty earlier in the year. So…

I feel that the treasury deal will get done. As we both, Keith and I mentioned in our comments that it’s not getting done at the pace that we would like, but it’s not for both parties not doing a super job trying to work through to get that done. So, but yes, I think both of us see a very clear line of sight with the team to get this done. So, I’ve got a good degree of confidence there. As far as the balance, the 28 million we need, you know obviously we’ve got to get a lot more done to get that. You know, the way Keith and I look at it, is to say, well if that is come in the second half of the year that means that we got to have a $56 million stream on an annualized basis to make that happen. And we have a rich pipeline of opportunities that are out there right now, and that we’re working. So, we wouldn’t guide to that right now if we didn’t think that we could get it done, and I think that’s the best way to think about it right now. The areas that we’re targeting right now outside of what we’ve done are in the data driven marketing space and as well as that continued capability smart moves that we may – we love the LogoMix. It has done really well so far, and by the way, I would just give a shout out to my new term at LogoMix. They are doing a super job so far in the first month or so, but things like that from more of a tuck-in standpoint we’re also looking at as well.

Great. Thanks for the additional color and good luck in Q2.

You’re welcome. Thank you, Chris. Takia?

Thank you. And I’m showing no further questions in queue at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Lee Schram, the company's CEO for closing remarks.

Thank you, Takia. Thank you everyone for your participation and thanks to Charlie and Chris for your questions today. Just three things I want to leave you with. First, we delivered a very strong quarter to start the year. Second, marketing solutions and other services revenue grew more than 12%, and the mix improved to 39% of total company revenue towards our goal this year of 45% for the total year and then approximately 60% in 2020. And lastly, we have established a solid baseline first quarter to propel us towards revenue growth again in 2018 for a ninth consecutive year. We are now going to roll up our sleeves, we're going to get back to work and we look forward to providing a positive progress report in our next earnings call and I’m going to turn it over to Ed for some final housekeeping.

Thanks Lee. Before we conclude today's call, I’d like to mention that Deluxe management will be participating in the following conferences in the second quarter. We can hear more about our transformation. On May 16, we will be attending the Needham Emerging Technology Conference in New York, and on June 5 we’ll be attending the R.W. Baird Consumer Technology and Services Conference in New York. Thank you for joining us, and that concludes the Deluxe first quarter 2018 earnings call.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.