Thomas Hirsch
Analyst · any time. Now I'll turn the call over to Stephanie Gregor, Vice President of Investor Relations at Fiserv
Thanks, Jeff, and good afternoon, everyone. Adjusted revenue was $1.2 billion in the quarter. Our adjusted internal revenue growth rate was 3%, solid results given the difficult prior year compare and the strength of our first quarter's performance. For the first half of the year, adjusted revenue was $2.3 billion, and adjusted internal revenue growth was 4%, a meaningful acceleration over the prior year's growth rate of 2%. Adjusted operating income in the quarter increased 4% to $360 million, and for the first 6 months, was up 7% to $702 million. Adjusted operating margin in the quarter was up 10 basis points over the prior year to 30.6%, and increased 100 basis points sequentially. For the first 6 months, adjusted operating margin is up 60 basis points compared to the prior year, driven primarily by growth in our scale businesses and operational efficiencies, including Open synergies. Adjusted earnings per share increased 8% to $0.81 in the quarter, and for the first half of the year, is up 15% to $1.63, both compared to the prior year period. Now onto the segment results. Adjusted revenue in the Payments segment increased 5% to $591 million in the quarter, and for the first 6 months, increased 7% to $1.2 billion, with only $2 million of acquired revenue year-to-date. The strength in our larger recurring revenue businesses such as card services, bill payment and channels, along with good performance from output solutions, drove the majority of the revenue growth. The decrease from the first quarter's growth rate was primarily due to more difficult second quarter compare; the annualization of a large client win at the end of the first quarter; and a negative impact from the Biller headwinds we shared with you earlier in the year, which stemmed primarily from client acquisition. We signed 88 new bill payment clients in the quarter and 170 through June 30. Bill payment transaction volume grew 3% in the quarter and 5% in the first 6 months. Strong new client growth was partially offset by the anniversary of our largest 2013 bill payment implementation in the first quarter and continued soft transaction volumes at our largest client. We expanded the number of member institutions in the Popmoney network in the quarter, and now have over 2,200 institutions contracted to offer these services. Transactions were up 73% in the quarter, and we continue to see important growth opportunities, in particular, as clients enable real-time capability for their customers. We have a strong pipeline for Popmoney Instant, including notable opportunities with several top 50 financial institutions to join the more than 170 financial institutions signed today. Debit transaction growth was 11% in both the second quarter and the first half of the year. We added 26 new debit clients in the quarter, and have signed 56 for the first 6 months of the year. New sales, better-than-market transaction growth and value-added services combined to drive strong, continued revenue growth in our card services business. Payments segment adjusted operating income was up 3% in the quarter to $185 million. And year-to-date, adjusted operating income increased 6% to $365 million compared to the prior year periods. Adjusted operating margin in the segment increased 70 basis points on a sequential basis to 31.3% in the second quarter, but down 70 basis points compared to the prior year, which was our highest overall margin quarter over the last 4 years. Through June 30, segment adjusted operating margin was down 30 basis points to 30.9% over the prior year's high watermark. Margin performance is driven by operating leverage in our scale businesses, offset by continued investments in areas such as Mobiliti and Biller Advantage, the margin mix associated with higher revenue growth in output solutions and Biller headwinds mentioned earlier. Adjusted revenue in the Financial segment increased 1% in the quarter to $596 million, and is up 2% to $1.2 billion for the first 6 months of the year, both compared with the prior year periods. The adjusted internal revenue growth rate in the segment of 1% in the quarter declined sequentially, primarily due to lower growth from fee revenue, including license and termination fees and the expected weakness in our International business. Adjusted internal revenue growth in the quarter and year-to-date was primarily driven by growth in our Account Processing businesses, partially offset by the timing of larger international client implementations in 2013, which create a very difficult year-over-year comparison, which should abate as we go through the second half of the year. Our large core Account Processing implementation, including Open Solutions, are progressing well. We expect increased revenue from these new clients across a variety of our market-leading solutions towards year end and even more as we move into 2015. Adjusted operating income in the Financial segment was up 6% in the quarter to $203 million, and is up 9% to $388 million through June. Adjusted operating margin expansion in the segment was stellar, up 170 basis points in the quarter to 34.1%, and up 200 basis points to 33.1% for the 6-month comparable period. Results were driven by growth in our Account Processing businesses, benefits of operational efficiencies, higher termination fees, partially offset by international headwinds. The adjusted operating loss in the Corporate segment for the second quarter was $28 million. The increase in expenses was primarily due to the implementation of a new HR system, rolling out during the second and third quarters of this year, along with the timing of expenses associated with our spring client conference. Our adjusted tax rate for the quarter was up to 36%, higher than the prior year's adjusted rate, primarily due to the impact of the nonrenewal of the R&D tax credit in 2014. Through June 30, our effective tax rate of 33.1% was lower than the prior year, with the difference driven by the timing of discrete tax benefits recorded in the first quarter of 2014. We expect the adjusted effective tax rate in the second half of the year to be higher than the first half, and that our full year tax rate, excluding the tax impact from StoneRiver Capital transaction, will be under 35%. We received a $45 million cash distribution from our StoneRiver joint venture in the quarter, which is excluded from our free cash flow performance. The year-to-date adjusted earnings contribution from StoneRiver decreased by $6 million, or a $0.02 negative EPS impact, as StoneRiver continues to opportunistically monetize its business portfolio. The performance of this equity investment has been exceptional. In fact, since the formation of the StoneRiver venture in 2008, Fiserv has received total cash payments in excess of $850 million. We continue to see attractive growth in free cash flow as one of the outcomes of our focus on high-quality revenue. Free cash flow for the first 6 months of the year reached nearly $400 million, increasing 10% over the prior year period. This performance, again, which does not include the $45 million from StoneRiver, translated to $1.54 in free cash flow per share, a very strong 16% increase. Total debt at June 30 was $3.8 billion or 2.3x our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. We repurchased 3 million shares of stock in the quarter for $168 million. Through June 30, we have deployed $519 million, repurchasing 9.1 million shares at an average cost of $57 per share. This is double the allocation of capital to share repurchase compared to the first half of 2013. At quarter's end, there were 249.1 million shares outstanding and 9.4 million shares remaining under our existing share repurchase authorization. With that, I will turn the call back over to Jeff.