Earnings Labs

DXC Technology Company (DXC)

Q4 2010 Earnings Call· Thu, May 20, 2010

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the CSC Fiscal Year 2010 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Bryan Brady, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Bryan Brady

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to CSC's earnings call for our fourth quarter and the full fiscal year 2010. We hope you've had the chance to review our financial results, which were issued earlier this morning. With me today are Mike Laphen, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Mancuso, our Chief Financial Officer. As usual, the call is being webcast at www.csc.com, and we've also posted slides to our website to accompany our discussion. On Slide 2, there is a reminder that statements made during this call that are not historical facts may be considered forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation & Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Additional information concerning these risks and uncertainties is contained in the company's filings with the SEC. Copies of these filings are available from the SEC from our website and from our Investor Relations department. Slide 3, acknowledges that CSC's presentation includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. In accordance with the SEC rules, a reconciliation of these metrics to GAAP metrics is included in the tables of the earnings release and in the appendix to our slides. Both documents are available for your review at the Investor Relations section of the CSC website. Finally, I'd like to remind our listeners that CSC assumes no obligation to update the information presented on this conference call except, of course, as required by law. Now, if you'll kindly move to Slide #4, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Mike Laphen.

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Well, thank you, Bryan, and good morning, everyone. We exit fiscal year 2010 feeling very good about last year's performance, and we begin fiscal 2011 optimistic on the prospects for the new year. Fueling our optimism are generally improving market conditions, along with our improved competitive position, validated by this year's record bookings. Our continued focus on meeting our customers' mission-critical requirements resulted in fiscal '10's successes highlighted on Slide 5. As Mike Mancuso will detail shortly, CSC had a very solid fourth quarter and an outstanding fiscal year '10. All of the key financial metrics, including operating margin, free cash flow and earnings per share were impressive. We successfully managed through a period that was extremely challenging for both our clients and ourselves. Our marketplace and competitive landscape continues to evolve at a quickening pace. For its part, CSC enjoyed the most successful year of our 50-year history with respect to new business bookings. Led by significant awards with Zurich Financial Services Group, United Technologies Corporation and Raytheon, we closed fiscal year '10 with a record-high $19.2 billion in bookings. 70% of these bookings are attributable to new logos and/or new services. A testimonial, I believe, to our ability to innovate and adapt to an ever-changing environment. Across the business, over 170 new logos were signed in fiscal year '10. The majority of these signings occurred in our third and fourth quarters, demonstrating real improvement in market conditions. CSC also improved its position in the Fortune 500 standings by moving up to number 138. This progression was accompanied by a significant strengthening of our financial position as we materially reduced the long-term debt, while increasing our final cash balance to $2.8 billion, up almost $500 million year-over-year. Notwithstanding the difficult economic times, we remain true to our strategic direction.…

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As Mike Laphen indicated, we are extremely proud with our fourth quarter and full year results. In a tough economy, we did well, attribute to the strength and diversity of our business portfolio offerings and customer client confidence. If you'll turn to Chart 11, I'll quickly review our FY '10 accomplishments. Our revenue held steady sequentially quarter-after-quarter throughout the year, with a 7% sequential uptick in the fourth quarter. Our operating income increased each quarter sequentially, and our margin rate increased each quarter. Our strong free cash flow presented us with the opportunity to early retire $500 million of 7 3/8% coupon term debt, and to make approximately $200 million of additional deficit reducing defined benefit pension plan contributions. This was in addition to the $25 million discretionary 401(k) contribution in this quarter that we discussed earlier in the year. It is also important to point out that while all this occurred, our ending fourth quarter cash balance is $500 million above our FY '10 starting point. We also demonstrated another four quarters of consistency and predictability in terms of meeting or beating our thrice-updated increased earnings guidance. And last but not least, our $19.2 billion of new business award well positions us for FY '11 and beyond. Chart 12, essentially repeats what I just said, with one notable additional accomplishment. With the cooperation and understanding of our U.K. employees, we were able to successfully negotiate a freeze to our U.K. defined benefit pension plan effective this July. As we did with our U.S. plan last July, this removes the risk of a growing liability, which would otherwise require potentially significant cash contributions, as well as rising P&L expense. Now if you'll turn to Chart 13, which is really our report…

Bryan Brady

Analyst

Thank you, Mike. Well, that completes our prepared remarks session. And we will now open the call for questions. Operator, could I ask you to please introduce our callers?

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question today from Adam Frisch with Morgan Stanley.

Adam Frisch - Morgan Stanley

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

I wanted to ask you first about bookings for next year. I know the pipeline is a little bit lower than where it was in the third quarter. The $18 billion a year is slightly lower than what you booked this year. Is that a number that you expect to have some conservatism there? Or is that kind of the number that we should be expecting this year? And what does it say about growth?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Well, Adam, the number is $18 billion plus or greater than $18 billion. So read it in that context, if you would. Last year was a phenomenal year. We think this coming year will be a very good year. We think $18 billion plus is a very good read out. I think the only conservatism that you might see in that number is the near-term view on Europe and what might happen or not happen there. But I think it's a good number.

Adam Frisch - Morgan Stanley

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

And so I wanted to follow up on Europe because you obviously have some exposure there. What's the feel on the ground in terms of new deals and the flow of business and so forth? Is it as bad as what Wall Street is hearing in terms of sovereign debt and all those kinds of things? Or is there a difference between the issues that we're having and what you're dealing with on the ground?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Yes. I don't think those two are closely linked yet. I think that remains to be played out. I would say that Europe, from an IT services standpoint, but particularly from a discretionary spend standpoint, is not recovering as quickly as the U.S. marketplace. Having said that, it is picking up. It is better than where it has been. It's just not quite as robust as the U.S. market. I think fortunately for us, we play on both the outsourcing world and the consulting and services world. We're continuing to see a significant appetite for outsourcing opportunities in Europe. And I think if the market does erode there, I think, we'll see continued and maybe even greater strength in the outsourcing market, which will offset, I think, to a significant portion on the discretionary side.

Adam Frisch - Morgan Stanley

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

I wanted to ask you if you think your ability -- your accuracy will get a little better? But I don't think it can get much worse than it was in fiscal '10. What gives you confidence that the tax rate will be there at 32%? Are things still moving around with some of the tax settlements you had that I know Bryan was working hard on to resolve? Or is that still kind of a number that's going to be all over the place for the near term?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Well, and first of all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The declining tax rate is a good thing. If it went the other way, I'm sure you'd have a different view. And kidding aside, we're still trying to clean up the mess Bryan left. The reality is that what we know now, obviously, you know the company. We do business in almost 100 of taxing jurisdictions, et cetera, et cetera. We've had a history of a high tax rate, but for the last 24 or 36 months. So we're working diligently to position the corporation to pay only that amount of taxes that we're legally responsible to pay obviously. So we're restructuring the ownership of the corporation around the world to position us favorably in different jurisdictions, as our mix of income moves up and down, it's going to swing. And remind you that we're in the middle of the IRS audit of our 2005 to 2007 tax years. And we expect some things will come rolling out of that. So long-winded answer to tell you, today, 32% is a very good number. If you're asking me which direction it's going to go, I'm not going to try and speculate. But we're confident that that's the mark starting the year with. And as events mature, we'll see.

Adam Frisch - Morgan Stanley

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Two housekeeping items and then I'll turn it over. First, what was the FX impact to revs and what do you think it will be in fiscal '11? How much of a headwind? And then the last question is, deferred revs were up by about 50% sequentially. Was that all due to NHS?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

To the latter point, yes, predominantly. As far as revenue, if we were to look at our first half of the year or even our -- usually -- well, if we look out six months with today's projected exchange rate, et cetera, I think we'd see a couple $200 million, $300 million worth of potential headwinds. With the chaos, if I can use that word, going on in Europe, who knows.

Adam Frisch - Morgan Stanley

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

And remind us of your hedging strategy, if there is any?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Well, we have the natural hedge that most of our costs are incurred in local currency. So our currency risk effectively is translation risk more than its cost-risk, et cetera, kind of thing. So we have a lot of natural hedges. Otherwise, where we don't, obviously we look earnestly at that as an opportunity. And most of it manifests itself in other income. This year, we had $20 million or so of other income. A good bit of that was hedging gain. So it's an active -- we're trying to keep an eye on a very volatile moving target.

Operator

Operator

Next, we'll hear from of Sri Anantha with Oppenheimer. Srinivas Anantha - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.: Mike, is it possible to give a new set of color on contribution from NHS in your fiscal '11 guidance? And is there any further risk assuming you do not miss any more milestones to that guidance?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Oppenheimer

There's been -- I hate to do this. But again, we're constrained as to what we can say contractually. But there's been different market assumptions out there in the range of 2% to 3%, and I wouldn't drift too far from those market assumptions. Srinivas Anantha - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.: In the past, you've also talked about potential margin contribution from using offshore resources, as you migrate some of your outsourcing work. Where are you in that vertical process? And what should we expect contribution on the margin front in fiscal year '11 from those initiatives?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Oppenheimer

Well, we'll continue our shift. In our Managed Services business, we're currently about 40% world -- what we call World Sourcing Services. So that's offshore, onshore of the total world call centers. The target we have for this year is to increase that from 40% to 50%. Srinivas Anantha - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.: And one last clarification. Mike, I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks and I missed it, what was the impact of paydown of debt on the EPS this quarter?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Oppenheimer

There is about $30 million of accelerated interest expense. I think it's $0.16 or something. It's on one of the back charts. But I think the impact is about $0.16 of additional cost impact on the debt.

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Oppenheimer

There was a pull-forward of the interest expense, so it was an expense and not a pickup.

Operator

Operator

Next, we'll hear from Jason Kupferberg with UBS.

Jason Kupferberg - UBS Investment Bank

Analyst · UBS

I wanted to start with a question on the discretionary spending environment in the BSS segment. Specifically, the qualitative comments that you made seem to suggest a little bit of incremental improvement more so in the U.S. than Europe, which I guess isn't surprising to folks. But if you look at the numbers, the BSS bookings, I believe, in the March quarter were down about 10% or 11% year-over-year. Last year, was a pretty easy comparison. I think, that was kind of the depth and trough of the recession. So is this just an anomaly from a timing perspective? Is there anything company specific going on? Are there other factors that work here? I just want to get a sense of -- then looking forward, what kind of contributions to the total bookings target in fiscal '11 would you expect to come from BSS, and when we'll start seeing a pick up there here in the June quarter?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · UBS

Yes, I guess I would say to try and give you a little bit of color on this, Jason. First of all, just to reaffirm my comment around the U.S. market, being a bit more robust than the European market, we are seeing pick up. We're not seeing large transformational opportunities popping on the horizon. We are getting more discretionary projects from an exploratory standpoint, so that's obviously helping us. We're anticipating a more significant pickup in the second half of the fiscal year than the first half of the fiscal year. One of the indicators we saw was that the local wins that I was talking about earlier in my comments, the vast majority of those happened in the third and fourth quarter as opposed to the first and second quarter last year. So that was a clear indication that we're seeing people come back into the market. We're not seeing them come back in a big spending way yet. But the exploratory projects, typically, to a pick up on bigger projects over time and we're painting that about a six-month window. In reality, I think, that will be driven very much by whether the recovery continues or whether recovery stumbles. That level of business is very dynamic.

Jason Kupferberg - UBS Investment Bank

Analyst · UBS

But basically what you've assumed in your guidance is that there will be a better fiscal second half of '11 than first half?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · UBS

Correct.

Jason Kupferberg - UBS Investment Bank

Analyst · UBS

And then when we think about at the free cash flow expectations for fiscal '11, the greater than 90% of net income. I know you can't get into specific numbers on NHS, but can you give us a sense whether or not your fiscal '11 free cash flow forecast is more dependent or less dependent on the NHS contract than your free cash flow forecast was in fiscal '10?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · UBS

Jason, if you recall, what I said was, in my prepared remarks, that it was cash neutral in FY '10 and we expected it to be cash neutral in FY '11, which would lead me to conclude that our free cash flow in FY '11 will come from other sources, i.e., improvements in working capital, of course, from our net income, et cetera. We're not NHS-dependent in meeting our numbers, relatively speaking.

Jason Kupferberg - UBS Investment Bank

Analyst · UBS

And then on the CapEx side, what have you assumed in your free cash flow guidance for fiscal '11? Because I think in the past, you've talked about kind of driving some lessening of the CapEx requirement in the business particularly as it relates to the outsourcing contracts.

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · UBS

Right now, I'd tell you that we think that there's a slight uptick in CapEx in FY '11 because of the startup of the Zurich contract, to name one, and a couple of the other large deals at MSS. Right now, we see an uptick, not a violet uptick by any stretch. But assuming the timing works out, you should see a little bit more CapEx in FY '11 than you did in FY '10.

Jason Kupferberg - UBS Investment Bank

Analyst · UBS

In absolute terms or percent of revs?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · UBS

In absolute terms.

Operator

Operator

Next we'll hear from Bryan Keane with Crédit Suisse. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: I just wanted to go back to the revenue growth assumptions, the 4% to 7% growth for the fiscal year '11. Is there any acquisition growth that's in that estimate?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

There's no major acquisition in that, Bryan. If we did tuck-in acquisitions, it would be included. But there's no major acquisition in there. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: And for the year, what is the constant currency revenue growth assumption? Because given the rates of today, it almost looks like you're expecting double-digit constant currency revenue growth to be able to hit a 4% to 7% growth for the year.

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

It is aggressive, I admit, relatively speaking to today's rates. If today's rates were to continue or get worse, obviously, then that would create significant headwinds to us. It's an aggressive forecast given market conditions around the world, et cetera, et cetera. But we remain robust and optimistic that it's achievable in the range that we've talked about. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: And how about -- just constant currency growth then for the fiscal year. Any way to think about that, taking out the FX equation for the fiscal year '11, what you're expecting?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

If you tell me what the rates are, I'll give you the answer. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: No, just constant currency, so that exits out the rates.

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Well, I think it's probably slightly less -- well, maybe a tad more, actually. If we're 4% to 7% in GAAP numbers, probably more like 6% to 8%, 7% to 9% perhaps in constant currency. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: And then just turn in from me to the U.K. NHS contract. Obviously, there's always a lot of press and speculations, so thanks for some of that clarification. Just a question on the memorandum of understanding. Have you guys signed that or do you expect to sign that shortly? And what are some of the implications there? Do you expect to take any write-downs or any reduction in rates?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

We have not signed it. All of that was put on hold from a signing standpoint due to the slippage of the Morecambe Bay milestone, as well as the election taking place in the U.K. That's what I was referring to in my comments earlier, that we're engaged with those discussions. I think those discussions are going well. And given that it is a new government and given that there are new personnel involved at the executive level, I don't think it's unrealistic to assume that it would slip into the summer months to finalize that. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: And should we expect any kind of write-down or a change in the accounting as a result of signing that contract and considering it sounds like you will take a little bit of -- there'll be some value reduction at least in the contract?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

No. We expect -- we're working with the customer. We've gone into this trying to address earnings. I think you need to put the whole restructuring in perspective or realignment, if you will. This is a large, long-term contract. We're very familiar with doing large and long-term contracts. We don't expect contracts to stay, of this type, to stay static over a 10-year period. So we anticipate both within our financial structure of these contracts as well as the contractual framework that we'll need to adapt and change to the customer's changes in directions, needs or new environment. So right now, we're straight ahead moving forward and expect to -- I think there's enough levers in a program of this size that we can reach an equitable and amicable agreement for both the NHS and for CSC. Bryan Keane - Crédit Suisse AG: The first quarter earnings are just only a couple of pennies lower than the Street, I think, at $0.88. I assume, maybe, that some of that might be tax rate, Mike. But is there also just some of the ramp up of some of this new business that might be coming out a little bit lower margin, so we shouldn't expect a lot of margin expansion in the first quarter as opposed to the rest of the year?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

I'd say you should expect an improvement in margin rate from what it was in FY '10 in the quarter. I think, as you know, as obviously we do historically, our first quarter and our first quarter margin rate versus our full year and year-end margin rate migrates up as the quarters matures. It's a phenomenon mix of business, et cetera. So you shouldn't read anything else in there about lower mix and new business. Cost reductions and the other things that Mike talked about will improve our margins this year on a total basis. And you should see an improvement this year first quarter margin rate versus first quarter a year ago.

Operator

Operator

We'll move on to George Price with Stifel, Nicolaus. George Price - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: I just wanted to clarify a couple of things around currency. So Mike Mancuso, I think I heard you talk about at current rate, the $200 million to $300 million revenue headwind. It sounded like that -- it wasn't clear to me if that was the first half of the year or for the whole year?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

It's more of the whole year, George, our hip shot today. George Price - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: And just your comment in the Q&A, if today's rates continue to get worse -- I can't remember exactly what you said, but it sounded like even the forecast that you're giving out, 4% to 7%, might be tough. I guess, let's just say that rates continue, can you still hit at least the low end of the fiscal '11 revenue growth on a reported basis if FX rates stay the same throughout the entire year?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

We think so. George Price - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: And then just on NHS, if I could. The press has been talking about recently a GBP 300 reduction. It sounds like a GBP 300 cumulative reduction in your NHS contracts. Is that an accurate number, and can you talk about what duration that's being applied to? I mean, is that over the full 10 years of the original contract? Is that over the remaining portion of the contracts?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Again, I can't get into the specifics. I guess, what I can say there is there has been discussions around a number of that magnitude. That is over the life of the contract. And I think, again, you need to keep in the context that that's GBP 300 million out of GBP 3 billion. So it's a manageable amount, I think, both for ourselves and for the NHS, if they choose to continue to move down that path. George Price - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Last question, just on the comment on the U.K. pension freeze, and I apologize if I missed it. But did you give a margin or cash flow benefit in fiscal '11 from that freeze?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

I did not, George. Would you like one? George Price - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: If you would be so kind, yes, sir.

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

The impact on cash will not manifest itself in FY '11. In terms of P&L, there will be about $20 million. And again, this is actuarially developed, so it could change. But there will be about a $20 million reduction year-over-year in pension expense as a result of the freeze. Keeping in mind that the freeze is effective in July. And I'll add one other piece of color to the U.K. pension plan renegotiation or freeze, if you will, is as part of the agreement with the trustees of the plan and works council, et cetera, we have agreed and negotiated with a funding plan to basically fund the deficit over a selected period of years. So that, discretely then, defines what our obligation is to fully fund the obligation kind of thing. So we have a cash profile. I will tell you that we expect today, based on today's numbers, that the renegotiation of the plan over a five-year period should save us about $50 million or so in pension contributions over this five-year period, FY '11 to '15. Beyond that, significantly more depending on the, obviously, the return on the pension investments. That helps a little bit to put it in context. It's really aimed at capping the uncertainty or illuminating the uncertainty wrapped around defined benefit plans. George Price - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: And if I could, just one more clarification on your comments on NHS. You said that you were neutral in fiscal '10. You expect to be neutral on a cash basis on the contracts in '11. Is the progression going to be similar to what we've seen in the past, which I believe is you'll -- I mean, are you going to step up a little bit? Still have investments that you have to do in the early part of the year and then basically recoup that to net out neutral in the back half of the year? Or is there going to be something different?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

I wouldn't look to it to be too drastically different than the past. I mean, it can always be perturbated by how the negotiations around the memo of understanding roll out, et cetera, in terms of scope and so on and so forth. So with that caveat, being somewhat of an unknown at this point, and think about it in the same kind of pattern it's been over the last couple of years.

Operator

Operator

We'll move on to Karl Keirstead with Kaufman Bros.

Karl Keirstead - Kaufman Bros.

Analyst

So it sounds like your fiscal '11 constant currency revenue growth guidance is about 7% to 8%. And I think for the start to work from here, Mike and Mike, people need to leave this call feeling like that's an achievable target. So if we could just spend a second on this. First of all, Mike Mancuso, could you give a little color on the June quarter growth rate, so we can judge how back-end loaded the guidance is? And then secondly, could you give a little color around how we get to that 7%, 8% by business unit? And specifically, if you're still comfortable with a high-single digit growth rate funding in NPS unit?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Karl, relative to the last point in NPS, yes, we are still confident in the high-single digit revenue growth in NPS. One of the more recent events, recent in the last 24 hours, that adds to our confidence there is the announcement this morning from the TSA [Transportation Security Administration] that they have re-awarded to us the IT infrastructure contract that had been delayed by protest. So we've re-won that, if you will, again and that's breaking news kind of thing. So as Mike indicated, we feel pretty good about NPS. In terms of constant currency, I'm looking at a detailed chart in front of me and it fundamentally says that -- and I probably was a little bit too aggressive in my earlier response, that we grow about 5% roughly in constant currency using the midpoint of our guidance. So since the midpoint of our -- since our guidance is 4% to 7% and the midpoint would be $17 billion of our guidance, it pretty much says that both at GAAP rates and constant currency, we're looking at the same kind of growth. Now detail by quarter, I don't have that detail in front of me, Karl, how it's going to fluctuate either by quarter or by business. But in a macro sense, those are the kind of numbers we see, again, assuming what we know today.

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Yes, I would just -- just to amplify on that a little bit. We've given you the window of 4% to 7%. And with what we know on currency today and the impact on currency that occurred since we put the budget process, we're still comfortable with that 4% to 7% range. I think what Mike was trying to say is if there's incremental negative impact on the currency, then we'd have to look at it at that point in time. But right now, we're comfortable in that 4% to 7% range that we've given you. In terms of the NPS, we're feeling pretty good about our NPS. We had bookings of $7 billion last year, that's a book-to-bill ratio of 1.15. We achieved a 90% win rate on our re-competes. We have a pipeline of $20 billion to be awarded by the end of the fiscal year, with $6.7 billion of that already in the evaluation stage. As Mike mentioned, just as late as yesterday, the Transportation Security Administration awarded us an almost $500 million contract. That's on the heels of the recently announced NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] contract for climate evaluation that was over $300 million. We believe we're extremely well situated in our high-budget areas for the government including cyber, health and data center consolidation. We have one of the Homeland Security's -- one of the two data centers where the consolidation would take place for the Homeland Security agency over the next several years. So we feel we're in very good position with NPS and I would emphasize a little bit that our moneys come not only from the IT budget but also from the O&M budget. And the O&M budget continues to be well supportive.

Karl Keirstead - Kaufman Bros.

Analyst

And if I could a quick follow up to Mike Mancuso. It looks like your March quarter free cash flow was comfortably above what you had guided to last quarter. And assuming you didn't hit the Morecambe Bay NHS milestone at the end of March and you didn't get a cash flow payment, could you help us understand how you hit that free cash flow number without a Morecambe Bay cash payment?

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Well, again, Karl, recall that I said that the Morecambe Bay milestone was not a significant milestone as it related to revenue recognition. So you shouldn't imply from that because it didn't carry a lot of cash around with it, too. Looking at the balance sheet, most of the cash came from earnings and working capital improvement, again, in the face of not seeing a buildup in the quarter in our payables. So it was the old-fashion, hard way, frankly. Our receivables, obviously, improved. So beyond that, we're not getting into account-by-account, Karl. It was a growing achievement. It's not unnatural if you go back to our fourth quarter of last year. I believe our free cash flow number was over $1 billion in the quarter. So we're capable of significant improvement. Obviously, all we want to do is take some of the excitement out of it. And Karl, if I may, I just want to add to something Mike said and remind all of you -- the folks on the call. As we talked about constant currency, roughly round numbers, 40% of our revenue comes out of NPS, which is in, obviously, in U.S. dollars. So our exposure to currency fluctuations is not perhaps as significant as some of our competitors and respective peers, so another thing to keep in mind as folks have anxiety around currency fluctuations.

Operator

Operator

Our final question will come from Ed Caso with Wells Fargo Securities.

Edward Caso - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

Can you just give a quick update, if any, on the request for equitable adjustment?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

Well, as you know, we had two significant claims outstanding. One would be one that was settled last fiscal year, we're pleased to say. The other one is within the court process. Probably won't get to any kind of a court settlement until next year sometime -- is the most likely outlook at this point in time.

Edward Caso - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

And just on the margin, how much of -- what keeps us from getting to the top or what sense is to the bottom of that range? Just two or three things that are the swing factors in the margin guidance.

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

Well, if you go back to my earlier comments, I listed five levers, I believe it was five, that we're working. If we hit all five successfully, we'll be at the top range. If we hit an assortment or less than those five, we'll be at the lower end of the range. So if things, like, improved operational execution, we've identified specific areas where we're working that. As I said earlier, with respect to moving into our world sourcing environment, we're going from 40% to 50% offshore this year. That's the plan. So again, that plays into it. We're looking at exiting some lower-margin businesses, so depending on whether that happens. And also, hopefully some improvement in the portfolio mix. So I think if you go back, it's actually six levers that we're looking at. If we hit them all well, we'll do the top end. If we don't quite hit a home run on all, then we'll be down in the lower end.

Edward Caso - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

When you say exiting businesses, is that, like, divestitures or just that contracts that you're not rebidding?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

No, that would be divestitures.

Edward Caso - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

And have you assumed that those -- what's in the margin improvement you also assume in your growth rate, so if you take it and add up to your revenue number?

Michael Laphen

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

No, we have not taken out, out of our revenue number. They're not particularly significant numbers in terms of the revenue. Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We look forward to you joining us again for our readout on the first quarter results for fiscal year '11. Thank you very much.

Michael Mancuso

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation.