Xerox announces fruitful Q4 and FY2018
January 30, 2019
Xerox has announced its fourth-quarter and full year 2018 financial results and revealed its 2019 guidance.
Highlights for the OEM included:
- Operating cash flow of $415 million (€363.1 million) in the quarter increases $564 million (€493.4 million) year-over-year, or $83 million (€72.6 million) year-over-year on an adjusted basis.
- Operating cash flow of $1.1 billion (€962.3 million) for the full year exceeds guidance and increases $1.3 billion (€1.1 billion) year-over-year, or $168 million (€146.9 million) year-over-year on an adjusted basis.
- Adjusted operating margin of 16.1 percent in the quarter expands 180 basis points year-over-year.
- Returned $969 million (€847.7 million) to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends for the full year
“Our Q4 results reflect continued progress on our strategic initiatives to optimize our operations, reenergise our innovation engine and increase shareholder returns,” said Xerox Vice Chairman and CEO John Visentin. “We remain focused on removing complexity in the way we work, organising more effectively, and creating a better customer experience, and we are seeing those efforts reflected in this quarter’s results.
“We are well positioned as we enter 2019 to continue to build on all our initiatives to deliver greater shareholder value. We look forward to sharing the details around our strategy and three-year financial expectations at our investor day on February 5.”
Business highlights from the quarter included:
- To drive revenue through expansion of the company’s U.S. SMB business, Xerox says it is transitioning over 28,000 of its small- and mid-sized government, healthcare, education and graphic communications accounts to Xerox Business Solutions (formerly Global Imaging Systems). This will provide these customers a high-touch, locally accessible model that aligns to the route to market best suited to deliver an exceptional experience for them, states the OEM.
- Over the last two quarters, Xerox says, “we have focused on creating a simpler, more agile and effective organisation through Project Own It, Xerox’s enterprise-wide transformation program. During the fourth quarter, we ramped up implementation of the program, which contributed to this quarter’s operating margin expansion.”
- The company recently renewed a long-standing relationship with Office Depot, supplying more than 8,000 devices across Office Depot/OfficeMax’s retail stores and regional offsite production facilities. The contract covers print technology in approximately 1,400 locations, as Xerox explains, making walk-up customer use more efficient, and providing high-quality colour output for promotional materials, posters, invitations and other applications.
- In a recent IDC report, Xerox was identified as the clear leader among document services providers, which the OEM says reflects its “broad portfolio of software and services solutions which deliver unique and differentiated value to our customers.” The company adds, “Xerox’s focus on security and digital transformation were highlighted as setting us apart from competitors, as were our industry-specific solutions expertise and global service delivery model.”
Looking ahead as 2019 unfolds, Xerox says “The company expects continued progress on its strategic initiatives in 2019, as projected in its financial guidance:
- Operating cash flow between $1.1 (€) and $1.2 billion (€) and free cash flow between $1 (€) and $1.1 billion (€).
- Revenue decline of approximately 5 percent at constant currency.
- Adjusted operating margin of 12.6 percent to 13.1 percent, an expansion of between 100 and 150 basis points year-over-year.
“In 2019, we are revising our definition of adjusted operating margin to exclude equity income,” says the OEM, adding, “Xerox plans to update investors on its strategy and longer-term financial expectations during its investor day on 5 February 2019.”
Categories : City News
Tags : Financials FY2018 Q4 Xerox
