Bill Osbourn
Analyst · Loop Capital
Thank you, John. As we stated during our Q1 earnings call, we assessed the impacts on our business under numerous recovery scenarios and we expected COVID-19 to have a significant impact on our business in Q2 based upon the impact that we experienced from the one month of business closures in the first quarter, and the expectation that closures would continue through most of Q2. We saw signs of recovery later in the quarter, as parts of the U.S and some countries in Europe began to lift lockdowns, thereby allowing businesses to reopen offices. And our current base case scenario reflects a slow gradual recovery in the second half of the year. Our focus on cash and expense management has only intensified as we managed through the crisis. In order to mitigate the impact on our revenue from the crisis, we implemented cost reduction actions, focus on cash preservation beginning in mid-March. Through Project Own It, we have developed not only a strong cost discipline, but also a more flexible cost structure that allows us to scale up or down quickly to assure the strength of our business, which enabled us to deliver positive earnings and free cash flow in the second quarter. The cash preservation actions in response to COVID-19 are aimed at discretionary items and are incremental to the initiatives under our Project Own It program, and both programs are continuing. The speed with which we are able to identify discretionary areas of costs that could be cut without impacting our future, develop actions and execute on those actions is a testament to our team and the discipline developed through Project Own It. Under our cash preservation program, we also identified opportunities to use certain temporary government assistance programs to provide cost relief while enabling us to thus far minimize financial impact on our employees. Although our revenue declined approximately $800 million in the quarter compared to the same quarter in 2018, we were able to generate $15 million of free cash flow in the quarter and $165 million of free cash flow in the first half of this unprecedented year. Importantly, our balance sheet remains strong and we have sufficient liquidity, including an undrawn $1.8 billion revolving credit facility that matures in August of 2022 and approximately $2.3 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at the end of the quarter. Now looking at our financial results. Total revenue in the quarter declined 34.6% in constant currency. The decline reflects sustained business closures during the quarter that delayed purchasing decisions and installations of orders in hand, as well as the impact of lower print volumes as people were not in the office printing. Turning to profitability. All the ratios and measures presented here were significantly impacted by the decline in revenue resulting from the pandemic. Let me start with adjusted operating margin, which was 4.2% in Q2 or 820 basis points lower year-over-year. The impact of lower revenue was partially offset by cost reductions from our Project Own It program and from the actions implemented to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, including costs relief from temporary government assistance programs. Gross margin of 38.5% decreased 60 basis points, which is primarily from lower revenue, in particular from lower post-sale revenue, which carries higher margins as well as headwinds from price reductions that are in line with prior quarters, transaction currency and tariffs. Benefits for Project Own It actions and other incremental actions taken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 partially offset the impact from the decrease in revenue and other headwinds. SAG as a percentage of revenue increased 630 basis points year-over-year, reflecting lower revenue, which was partially offset by productivity benefits from Project Own It and savings from the incremental cost reduction actions we put in place. Also, it is important to note that in the first quarter we increased our bad debt provision by $61 million to cover the potential impact to our customers from the pandemic. During the second quarter, we reviewed our bad debt reserve and determined it to be sufficient and consistent with future expectations regarding the impacts from the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, no incremental reserves are required and bad debt expense for the second quarter of 2020 of $13 million was effectively flat as compared to the second quarter of 2019. We will continue to monitor developments regarding this crisis in the future periods to ensure appropriate reserve levels. Last, RD&E as a percent of revenue increased 130 basis points reflecting the lower base of revenue. RD&E expense declined, $12 million year-over-year, partially due to cost reductions on older generation products, consolidation of core R&D activities in the prior year and the timing of investments. And as John mentioned, we continue to make progress in our 5 innovation areas. Below operating profit, other expenses net of $7 million was $31 million better than the prior year due to lower non-service retirement related costs of $18 million and lower non financing interest expense of $8 million. The lower non-service retirement related costs were driven by lower losses from pension settlements in the U.S and lower non-financing interest expense as a result of lower average debt balance. Our second quarter adjusted tax rate of 23.4% compared to 26.6% in the prior year. The lower tax rate year-over-year is primarily due to the geographic mix of profits, as well as the impact of discrete items on lower pre-tax income. Adjusted EPS of $0.15 was down $0.64 compared to the same quarter last year, driven by the impact of COVID-19 on our operations, which more than offset the benefit from cost reductions, lower interest expense, lower tax rate and lower shares. GAAP EPS of $0.11 per share was $0.49 lower year-over-year, including the aforementioned $0.64 decline in adjusted EPS, partially offset by a net benefit in non-GAAP adjusted items, primarily from lower restructuring and related costs, lower non-service related pension expense and lower tax on these adjustments. Non-GAAP adjustments to EPS include restructuring related costs, the amortization of intangible assets, non-service retirement related costs and transaction and related costs net as well as the income tax on those adjustments. In Q2, we recorded $3 million of restructuring and related costs, which includes a $9 million reversal from prior period estimates. Moving to Slide 7, I'll discuss cash flow. In Q2, we generated $34 million of operating cash flow from continuing operations, which was $242 million lower than prior year due to lower net income and a use from cash from working capital that was partially offset by lower finance assets and lower cash taxes. Working capital cash was $68 million worse than prior year due to increased use of cash from inventory and accounts payable, which was partially offset by an increase in cash from accounts receivable. Inventory reflects lower sales volumes and reduced purchases by indirect channel partners who are managing their inventory levels to protect liquidity during the crisis, and accounts payable reflects decreased spending and the timing of payments to vendors, while accounts receivable is primarily due to lower revenue. Restructuring payments of $17 million were aligned with prior year. CapEx was $19 million in the quarter and free cash flow was $15 million. We expect CapEx will be aligned with our prior year guidance for full-year 2020, supporting the programs to drive our strategic growth plan, including continued investments and our IT infrastructure. There were no acquisitions in the quarter. However, we continue to assess our pipeline of tuck in acquisitions and strategic M&A. We spent $193 million in Q1 to expand our SMB strategy internationally and we expect full year spend for tuck in M&A will be in line with prior guidance. Within financing cash flows, we repaid a $313 million senior unsecured bond with cash in the quarter and effectively refinanced this bond in July through a finance receivable securitization. We returned $57 million in dividends to shareholders, and we did not repurchase shares in the quarter. We manage capital conservatively this quarter, given the uncertainty of the pandemic and the expected impact it would have on our business. We executed on our cost management initiatives and preserved our cash ending the quarter with $2.3 billion of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash. Let's turn to Slide 8 for more detail on our revenue. Second quarter revenue declined 34.6% in constant currency and reflects the impact of widespread business closures that extended through the quarter and caused delayed customer purchasing decisions and lower print volumes. Geographically, we saw larger revenue declines in Europe, where more of our sales are through indirect channel partners who are protecting their liquidity and managing their inventories in response to lower demand. In North America, we have more sales through direct channels, and there is a higher percentage of large enterprise customers, including government and healthcare customers that continue to operate through the crisis. Equipment sales revenue was down 38% in constant currency. While we saw an improvement in North America and Europe in June, as countries and certain offices began to reopen, we are cautious in projecting a trend that based upon June, given the recent outbreaks of the virus in certain parts of the U.S and developing markets, although we do expect performance to improve gradually in the second half. In the U.S., our large enterprise business continue to see growth in sales to federal government and health care customers who have been operational through this crisis. Also, as we mentioned last quarter, we were unable to install approximately $100 million of purchase orders as a result of business closures in March. Approximately 40% of those orders were installed in the second quarter and we expect to install another 45% in the second half of this year with the remainder either canceled or delayed beyond 2020. Looking at product categories, mid range was most impacted by office closures as this category of products is mostly used in offices and shared workplaces. Mid range sales decreased in indirect channels, which as I mentioned, impacts Europe more than North America. However, the U.S was also down significantly reflecting delays in purchasing decisions. In the high-end, we had good activity in black and white production supporting transactional printing applications, where production color sales were down reflecting primarily lower sales of our Versant entry production color system and Iridesse production press due to the impact of the crisis on our distribution channels and lower demand caused by the pandemic. Next, revenue from entry products, both black and white and color was down reflecting the impact on our indirect channel partners and continued lockdowns in Latin America. The decline was partially offset by higher sales in the low end of the portfolio which supports work-from-home offerings. Post-sale revenue declined 33.6% in constant currency. Our post-sale revenue is largely contractual and our context generally include a fixed minimum charge as well as a variable component for service and supplies that is based upon print volume. Historically, on average, the variable component is approximately 50% of our contractual revenue stream. The widespread business closures due to the pandemic had a significant impact on page volumes, which is evident in the decline in our post-sale revenue this quarter. We saw the greatest impact in April and May and moderation in the rate of decline of pages from contractual agreements in June. Unbundled supplies, paper and other sales, which are largely sold through our indirect channels also decreased approximately 50% in the quarter, reflecting lower demand caused by the crisis, which is driving channel partners to reduce their inventory purchases also in order to protect cash. Xerox services revenue declined approximately 28% year-over-year in constant currency with new business signings down due to delays in customer purchasing decisions. We had growth in services renewals in the quarter, which is the second consecutive quarter of higher renewals. Although the rate of increase was lower in the second quarter, as we experienced customers delaying renewal decisions and extending existing contracts citing the uncertainty of the environment. We have a building pipeline, which gives us confidence that our business will continue to improve as the economy rebounds. Last, our investments in IT services, software and digital services are gaining traction. The expansion of IT services with an XPS channel in the U.S and through recent acquisitions in Canada and the U.K contributed to increased sales in the second quarter compared to the first quarter even with restrictions to enter some of our customer's locations. These offerings, which also support a flexible work environment are resonating with customers and our IT services pipeline is growing. Next, turn to Slide 9 and our profit and earnings. Adjusted operating margin was 4.2% in the quarter, which was 50 basis points lower than the first quarter. We expected the pandemic to have a sizeable impact on our business in Q2. And in March, we quickly began to implement actions to manage costs and preserve cash, focusing on discretionary spend. As I mentioned, these actions are incremental to the planned actions under our Project Own It transformation program, and among other areas, targeted marketing expense and reducing the use of contract employees across the organization. In addition, we use certain temporary government programs in the U.S., Canada and Europe provide costs relief without further use of cash while minimize the impact on our employees. We are continuing actions to reduce costs and preserve cash through the second half. We were able to act quickly in response to the pandemic as a result of the progress on our Project Own It transformation program. Through this program, we have developed a disciplined approach to cost management and a more flexible cost structure. Project Own It initiatives are continuing, and the program is on track to deliver these $450 million in gross cost savings this year. Adjusted EPS of $0.15 declined $0.64 year-over-year. And as discussed earlier, reflects the impact of COVID-19 on our operations, which offset the benefits from cost reductions, lower interest expense, lower tax and lower shares. Moving on to Slide 10 and a review of our capital structure. We ended the quarter with $4 billion of debt, of which $3 billion supports customer financing activities, and therefore we break down our debt between financing debt and core debt. Financing debt is allocated by applying a 7 to 1 leverage through our finance receivables and equipment under operating lease, which together comprise our total finance assets. Core debt was approximately $1 billion and we ended the quarter with approximately $2.3 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, which puts us in a net cash position of approximately $1.3 billion when netting cash against core debt. In May, we repaid a $313 million senior unsecured bond with cash, which is why our debt is approximately $300 million lower than year-end. However, in July, we effectively refinanced the May bond with a $340 million finance receivable securitization. This was an attractive transaction that provides match funding for a portfolio of U.S finance receivables. For the balance of 2020, we have approximately $740 million of bonds maturing, which we plan to refinance. Our liquidity position remains strong with approximately $2.3 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, and a $1.8 billion bank revolver, which is fully available to us. Our pension funded status is updated annually. And as of December 31, 2018, our net unfunded pension liability was $1.2 billion, which included approximately $815 million of unfunded pension liabilities for plans that by design are not funded. In 2019, we contributed $141 million to worldwide pension plans and expect 2020 contributions will be in line with prior guidance. Last, turn to Slide 11 for some thoughts on the balance of 2020. For the second half, under our current base case scenario, we are expecting a slow gradual recovery. Our outlook considers the continuing impact from the virus, particularly in certain areas of the U.S and in developing markets and the current pace of business reopenings and capacity limitations within offices and other shared workplaces. Accordingly, we do not anticipate a recovery in our revenues to pre-COVID-19 levels this year, although it is expected that we will continue to deliver positive free cash flow in the second half of 2020. While we were planning for our gradual recovery in the second half, we have evaluated our business under numerous scenarios to be ready to manage through a more elongated recovery if required. As we demonstrated in the second quarter, we are resilient, and we are prepared to execute on additional levers to manage through longer recovery scenarios. Given what we know today, it is difficult to predict the timing of recovery and the full impact on our financial results this year. Therefore, as John advised, we are not providing financial guidance for 2020 at this time. On capital allocation, we remain committed to our dividend and our policy of returning at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders. And we plan to repurchase at least $300 million of our shares during the second half of this year. We have a strong balance sheet and liquidity, which supports our dividend policy and the resumption of our share repurchases in the second half. I will now turn it back to John before going to Q&A.