Michael Monahan
Analyst · Brean Murray
Thank you, Murray. Our revenue for the quarter was $1.3 billion, a decline of 4% excluding the impact of currency. As Murray noted on a constant-currency basis, revenue benefited from growth in 4 of our 7 business segments, which includes International Mailing, Software, Mail Services and Marketing Services. However, while SMB equipment sales comparisons improved year-over-year, there continued to be declines in the SMB recording revenue streams. Also revenue was adversely impacted by weakness in the Production Mail and Management Services businesses. I want to note that there was also a one-time $10 million reduction in revenue this quarter due to an adjustment to a deferred revenue accrual. Excluding this adjustment, rental revenue declined 6% year-over-year and financing revenue declined less than 8%. Breaking down our revenue for the quarter between U.S. and non-U.S. operations, U.S. revenue declined by 4%. Outside the U.S., revenue declined by about 7% on a reported basis and about 5% excluding the impact of currency. Non-U.S. operations represented 31% of our total revenue. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes was $211 million this quarter and excludes the impact from the sale of leveraged lease assets in Canada. The adjusted EBIT margin this quarter was 16.8%, which was an increase of 90 basis points versus the prior year. EBIT margin benefited from favorable margin trends in a majority of our business segments this quarter. Turning to selling, general and administrative, or SG&A, expenses, it declined by more than $15 million when compared with the prior year. SG&A continues to benefit from previous non-going productivity initiatives as well as improved credit experience. On a segment basis, EBIT margins this quarter improved year-over-year in 4 of our 7 business segments. The North American Mailing segment improved its year-over-year EBIT margin for the seventh consecutive quarter, and our Software, Mail Services and Marketing Services segments also had improving EBIT margins. These improvements are primarily a result of our continued focus on increasing our operating efficiency across all our businesses and the benefits we're realizing from our previous Strategic Transformation initiatives. When we add back depreciation and amortization to our adjusted EBIT, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $276 million, or $1.37 per share. Net interest expense in the quarter, including financing interest, was $49 million, a decrease of about $2 million when compared with the prior year. The average interest rate in the quarter was 4.71%, which was 10 basis points lower than last year. The effective tax rate for the quarter on adjusted earnings was 19.4% versus an effective tax rate of 29.9% last year. The lower tax rate this quarter was primarily due to the resolution of additional tax matters with the IRS related to years 2005 through 2008. As a result, during the quarter, we realized a net tax benefit of about $22 million in continuing operations, or $0.11 per share. Excluding the net impact of the unusual tax adjustments, our tax rate on adjusted earnings from continuing operations would have been about 33% this quarter. Now let's turn to our adjusted earnings per diluted share, which includes the $0.11 per share tax benefit I just noted. Adjusted earnings per diluted share from continuing operations for the quarter was $0.63. However, on an underlying operational basis, consistent with our annual guidance, you would exclude the $0.11 per share tax benefit. On this basis, adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.52, which is comparable to the $0.53 we earned last year. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter increased 87% versus the prior year to $0.79. There are 2 specific items causing the difference between adjusted earnings and GAAP earnings this quarter. First, GAAP earnings per diluted share included a net benefit of $0.06 per share related to the sale of leveraged lease assets in Canada. Second, we resolved additional tax matters with the IRS related to our formal capital services business. This resulted in a $0.10 per share net tax benefit in discontinued operations in the quarter. Now let me update you on our cash flow and capital structure. Free cash flow for the quarter was $211 million. In comparison to the prior year, free cash flow was impacted by higher working capital requirements due to timing of disbursements, higher CapEx investment and less of a benefit from finance receivables. During the quarter, we returned $75 million of cash to our shareholders in the form of dividends and made $26 million of payments related to our restructuring program. We also made voluntary contributions of $85 million to our U.S. pension fund and $10 million to our Canadian pension fund. As a result, we estimate our U.S. pension plan is now about 95% funded and our Canadian pension plan is about 85% funded. As a reminder, both our U.S. and Canadian pension plans will be frozen as of the end of 2014. We are changing our investment strategy and managing our pension asset mix to reduce the volatility of future pension expense from cash contribution requirements. This is part of our overall strategy to better match the value of our assets to our liabilities. We did not purchase any shares of our common stock this quarter. As of the end of the quarter, we had $178 million of commercial paper outstanding, primarily as a result of retiring $150 million of our term debt during the quarter. It's our expectation that we will pay down a portion of this commercial paper balance during the year. We have $400 million of additional debt scheduled to mature in October. We're currently evaluating our alternatives on how best to manage our debt portfolio including refinancing through new term debt, commercial paper, cash or a combination of these 3 options. At the end of the quarter, about 76% of our total debt was fixed-rate and 24% was floating-rate. In April, we also renewed our bank line of credit for $1 billion for a term of 4 years. This line of credit supports our commercial paper program. So that concludes my remarks. Now Murray will discuss our guidance, and we'll have some closing comments.