Gino Bonanotte
Analyst · Raymond James. Please go ahead
Thank you, Greg. Q3 includes revenue of $2 billion, up 7% versus last year, including $58 million of revenue from acquisitions and currency headwinds of $21 million. Organic revenue growth was 4%. GAAP operating earnings of $413 million, up $119 million and operating margins of 20.7% of sales compared to 15.8% in the year ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings of $509 million, up $57 million or 13% and non-GAAP operating margins of 25.5% of sales, up 120 basis points driven by higher sales in gross margins partially offset by higher OpEx from acquisitions. GAAP earnings per share of $1.51 compared to $1.43 in the year ago quarter. Non-GAAP EPS of $2.04, up 5% from $1.94 last year on higher operating earnings offset primarily by a higher effective tax rate. OpEx in Q3 was $504 million, up $40 million versus last year primarily due to acquisitions. Other income and expense was $39 million compared to $43 million in the year ago quarter driven primarily by a decrease in net interest expense. The Q3 effective tax rate was 23% compared to 18% in the prior year. The year-over-year increase was driven by the recognition of a favorable return to provision adjustment in the prior year. Turning to cash flow, Q3 operating cash flow was $525 million compared to $338 million in the prior year and free cash flow was $465 million compared with $292 million in the prior year. The higher cash flow was primarily due to improved working capital, a settlement payment in the prior year related to a legacy business and higher earnings. Capital allocation for Q3 included $271 million in cash and equity for the acquisition of WatchGuard, $94 million in cash dividends, $60 million of CapEx and we paid off the $400 million term loan used to acquire Avigilon. Additionally, we agreed to extend our strategic partnership with Silver Lake. As part of the agreement, Silver Lake agreed to make a new $1 billion investment in Motorola Solutions and settled the outstanding $800 million aggregate principal investment 1 year ahead of its maturity. The $800 million principal was settled in cash and the premium was settled with $300 million in cash and $5.5 million in shares. The transaction resulted in an overall reduction to our diluted share count in the quarter. Moving to segment results, Q3 Products and Systems Integration sales were $1.3 billion, up $61 million or 5% driven by the Americas. Revenue from acquisitions in the quarter was $27 million and currency headwinds were $9 million. Operating earnings were $300 million or 22.2% of sales, up 80 basis points from last year on higher sales and gross margins partially offset by higher OpEx from acquisitions. Some notable Q3 wins in the segment include an award from Bell Mobility for the largest Canadian P25 contract in history serving the province of Ontario, $27 million in video security wins in education, a $16 million P25 order from Lee County, Florida, several large awards in mobile and in-car video, including $13 million for the City of Nashville, Tennessee, and $4 million for the Michigan state police and $3 million in fixed video security wins for government customers. Moving to the Services and Software segment, revenue was $645 million, up $71 million or 12% from last year driven by growth in the Americas and EMEA. Revenue from acquisitions in the quarter was $31 million and currency headwinds were $12 million. Operating earnings were $209 million or 32.4% of sales, up 170 basis points from last year driven by higher sales and gross margin expansion. Notable Q3 wins in the segment include a $78 million dollar P25 multiyear service contract with the state of Michigan extending service through 2029, a $58 million P25 multiyear statewide service contract in North America, and $11 million Command Center Software Suite contract with Glendale, Arizona and a $4 million contract for a 911 system in Bogota, Colombia. Looking at regional results, America’s Q3 revenue was $1.5 billion, up 12% driven by broad-based growth across all platforms. EMEA Q3 revenue was $384 million, down 1% due to large system deployments in the Middle East in the prior year and currency headwinds partially offset by growth in Europe. And in Asia-Pacific, Q3 revenue was $158 million, down 9% or $16 million due to China and currency headwinds. Ending backlog was $11 billion, up $1.6 billion or 17% compared to last year. Sequentially, backlog was up $160 million with growth in both segments. Services and software backlog was up $1.6 billion or 26% compared to last year. Approximately half of the increase was driven by the Americas and half by EMEA. The EMEA growth is primarily related to the ESN and Airwave extensions. Sequentially, backlog was up $34 million due to multiyear contracts in the Americas partially offset by revenue recognition for ESN and Airwave. Products and SI segment backlog was down $39 million or 1% compared to last year, due to two large system deployments during the prior year in the Middle East and Africa partially offset by growth of $134 million in the Americas. Sequentially, backlog was up $126 million driven by the Americas. Turning to our outlook, we expect Q4 sales to be up 5% to 5.5% with non-GAAP EPS between $2.75 and $2.80. This assumes $20 million of FX headwinds at current rates, a weighted average diluted share count of approximately $176 million shares and an effective tax rate of approximately 25%. For the full year 2019, we now expect revenue growth of 7.25% to 7.5% and we now expect non-GAAP EPS between $7.77 and $7.82, up from our prior guidance of $7.67 to $7.77. This full year outlook assumes $115 million of FX headwinds at current rates, an effective tax rate of 23.5% and a weighted average diluted share count of approximately 176 million shares. We continue to expect full-year operating cash flow to be approximately $1.7 billion. I’d now like to turn the call back over to Greg.