Broadridge Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2025 Results

Recurring revenues grew 3%; up 4% constant currency

Closed sales rose 21% to $57 million

Diluted EPS was $0.68 and Adjusted EPS was $1.00

Raising FY'25 guidance to include 6-8% Recurring revenue growth constant currency;
reaffirming 8-12% Adjusted EPS growth

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended September 30, 2024 of its fiscal year 2025. Results compared with the same period last year were as follows:  

"Broadridge's first quarter results keep us on track to deliver a strong fiscal year 2025," said Tim Gokey, Broadridge CEO. "In a seasonally small quarter, Recurring revenue constant currency grew 4% and Adjusted EPS was $1.00. Closed sales rose 21%, highlighting continued strong demand for our solutions.

"We continue to execute on our strategy to democratize and digitize investing, simplify and innovate trading, and modernize wealth management. That execution is driving our results in the form of strong sales, a growing sales pipeline, and continued product innovation," he continued.

"We are raising our Fiscal Year 2025 outlook for Recurring revenue growth to 6-8%, reflecting strong organic growth and our recently closed acquisition of SIS. We are also reaffirming our guidance of 8-12% Adjusted EPS growth and strong Closed sales of $290-330 million," Mr. Gokey concluded.

Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Guidance

Financial Results for First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 compared to First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024

• Total revenues decreased 1% to $1,423 million from $1,431 million.
  • Recurring revenues increased $29 million, or 3%, to $900 million. Recurring revenue growth constant currency (Non-GAAP) was 4%, driven by Net New Business in ICS and Internal Growth in GTO.
  • Event-driven revenues decreased $24 million, or 28%, to $63 million, driven by lower corporate action activity and lower volume of mutual fund proxy communications.
  • Distribution revenues decreased $13 million, or 3%, to $460 million, driven by lower volume of event-driven mailings partially offset by the postage rate increase of approximately $23 million.
• Operating income was $134 million, a decrease of $14 million, or 9%. Operating income margin decreased to 9.4%, compared to 10.4% for the prior year period, primarily due to lower event-driven revenues partially offset by higher Recurring revenues.
  • Adjusted Operating income was $185 million, a decrease of $14 million, or 7%. Adjusted Operating income margin was 13.0% compared to 13.9% for the prior year period. The combination of lower distribution revenue and modestly higher float income negatively impacted margins by 30 basis points.
• Interest expense, net was $32 million, a decrease of $1 million, primarily due to a decrease in average borrowings.
• The effective tax rate was 20.4% compared to 19.5% in the prior year period. The effective tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2024 was primarily driven by a decrease in discrete tax benefits relative to pre-tax income due to a lower excess tax benefit related to equity compensation.
• Net earnings decreased 12% to $80 million and Adjusted Net earnings decreased 9% to $118 million.
  • Diluted earnings per share decreased 11% to $0.68, compared to $0.76 in the prior year period, and
  • Adjusted earnings per share decreased 8% to $1.00, compared to $1.09 in the prior year period.

Segment and Other Results for First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 compared to First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024

Investor Communication Solutions ("ICS")

• Total revenues were $1,016 million, a decrease of $13 million, or 1%.
  • Recurring revenues increased $24 million or 5%, to $493 million. Recurring revenue growth constant currency (Non-GAAP) was 5%, driven by Net New Business.
  • By product line, Recurring revenue growth and Recurring revenue growth constant currency (Non-GAAP) were as follows:
    • Regulatory rose 6% and 6%, respectively, which included the impact of equity position growth of 3% and mutual fund/ETF position growth of 6%.
    • Data-driven fund solutions rose 6% and 6%, respectively, driven primarily by growth in our global distribution insights and retirement and workplace products.
    • Issuer rose 8% and 8%, respectively, driven by growth in shareholder engagement solutions and disclosure solutions products.
    • Customer communications rose 3% and 3%, respectively, driven by growth in print revenues and digital communications.
  • Event-driven revenues decreased $24 million, or 28%, to $63 million, driven by lower corporate action activity and lower volume of mutual fund proxy communications.
  • Distribution revenues decreased $13 million, or 3%, to $460 million, driven by lower volume of event-driven mailings partially offset by the postage rate increase of approximately $23 million.
• Earnings before income taxes decreased by $19 million, or 16%, to $97 million, as the benefit from higher Recurring revenue was more than offset by lower event-driven revenue. Operating expenses rose 1%, or $6 million to $919 million as lower distribution volumes more than offset the impact of the postage rate increase.
• Pre-tax margins decreased to 9.5% from 11.2% in the prior period.

Global Technology and Operations ("GTO")

• Recurring revenues were $407 million, an increase of $5 million, or 1%. Recurring revenue growth constant currency (Non-GAAP) was 2%, all organic, driven by Internal Growth. Net New Business was flat as revenue from new sales was offset by losses.
• By product line, Recurring revenue growth and the corresponding Recurring revenue growth constant currency (Non-GAAP) were as follows:
  • Capital Markets rose 5% and 5%, respectively, driven by Net New Business and Internal Growth. Internal Growth benefited from higher trading volumes.
  • Wealth and Investment Management declined 5% and 4%, respectively, driven primarily by the ongoing impact of a large client loss which reduced revenue growth by approximately 10 points.
• Earnings before income taxes were $47 million, an increase of $14 million, or 41% from a combination of higher revenues and lower expenses, including lower labor costs.
• Pre-tax margins increased to 11.6% from 8.4%.

Other

• Loss before income tax increased to $44 million from $36 million in the prior year period, primarily due to higher compensation and other Corporate expenses, including Acquisition and Integration Costs of $2 million.

Acquisition of SIS

On November 1, 2024, the Company completed the acquisition of Kyndryl's Securities Industry Services ("SIS") business ("SIS Business") to provide wealth management, capital markets, and information technology solutions in Canada, expanding the Company's product offerings in the GTO reportable segment. The total purchase price, translated to U.S. dollars, was approximately $185 million.

Earnings Conference Call

An analyst conference call will be held today, November 5, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. ET. A live webcast of the call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis. To listen to the live event and access the slide presentation, visit Broadridge's Investor Relations website at www.broadridge-ir.com prior to the start of the webcast. To listen to the call, investors may also dial 1-877-328-2502 within the United States and international callers may dial 1-412-317-5419. A replay of the webcast will be available and can be accessed in the same manner as the live webcast at the Broadridge Investor Relations site. Through November 12, 2024, the recording will also be available by dialing 1-877-344-7529 within the United States or 1-412-317-0088 for international callers, using passcode 7370329 for either dial-in number.

Explanation and Reconciliation of the Company's Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures 

The Company's results in this press release are presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP except where otherwise noted. In certain circumstances, results have been presented that are not generally accepted accounting principles measures ("Non-GAAP"). These Non-GAAP measures are Adjusted Operating income, Adjusted Operating income margin, Adjusted Net earnings, Adjusted earnings per share, Free cash flow, and Recurring revenue growth constant currency. These Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as a substitute for, the Company's reported results.

The Company believes our Non-GAAP financial measures help investors understand how management plans, measures and evaluates the Company's business performance. Management believes that Non-GAAP measures provide consistency in its financial reporting and facilitates investors' understanding of the Company's operating results and trends by providing an additional basis for comparison. Management uses these Non-GAAP financial measures to, among other things, evaluate our ongoing operations, and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. In addition, and as a consequence of the importance of these Non-GAAP financial measures in managing our business, the Company's Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors incorporates Non-GAAP financial measures in the evaluation process for determining management compensation.

Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Income Margin, Adjusted Net Earnings and Adjusted Earnings Per Share

These Non-GAAP measures are adjusted to exclude the impact of certain costs, expenses, gains and losses and other specified items the exclusion of which management believes provides insight regarding our ongoing operating performance. Depending on the period presented, these adjusted measures exclude the impact of certain of the following items:

      (i) Amortization of Acquired Intangibles and Purchased Intellectual Property, which represent non-cash amortization expenses associated with the Company's acquisition activities

      (ii) Acquisition and Integration Costs, which represent certain transaction and integration costs associated with the Company's acquisition activities.

We exclude Acquisition and Integration Costs from our Adjusted Operating income (as applicable) and other adjusted earnings measures because excluding such information provides us with an understanding of the results from the primary operations of our business and enhances comparability across fiscal reporting periods, as these items are not reflective of our underlying operations or performance.

We also exclude the impact of Amortization of Acquired Intangibles and Purchased Intellectual Property, as these non-cash amounts are significantly impacted by the timing and size of individual acquisitions and do not factor into the Company's capital allocation decisions, management compensation metrics or multi-year objectives. Furthermore, management believes that this adjustment enables better comparison of our results as Amortization of Acquired Intangibles and Purchased Intellectual Property will not recur in future periods once such intangible assets have been fully amortized. Although we exclude Amortization of Acquired Intangibles and Purchased Intellectual Property from our adjusted earnings measures, our management believes that it is important for investors to understand that these intangible assets contribute to revenue generation. Amortization of intangible assets that relate to past acquisitions will recur in future periods until such intangible assets have been fully amortized. Any future acquisitions may result in the amortization of additional intangible assets.

Free cash flow

In addition to the Non-GAAP financial measures discussed above, we provide Free cash flow information because we consider Free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated that could be used for dividends, share repurchases, strategic acquisitions, other investments, as well as debt servicing. Free cash flow is a Non-GAAP financial measure and is defined by the Company as Net cash flows provided by operating activities less Capital expenditures as well as Software purchases and capitalized internal use software.

Recurring revenue growth constant currency

As a multi-national company, we are subject to variability of our reported U.S. dollar results due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. The exclusion of the impact of foreign currency exchange fluctuations from our Recurring revenue growth, or what we refer to as amounts expressed "on a constant currency basis," is a Non-GAAP measure. We believe that excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange fluctuations from our Recurring revenue growth provides additional information that enables enhanced comparison to prior periods.   

Changes in Recurring revenue growth expressed on a constant currency basis are presented excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange fluctuations. To present this information, current period results for entities reporting in currencies other than the U.S. dollar are translated into U.S. dollars at the average exchange rates in effect during the corresponding period of the comparative year, rather than at the actual average exchange rates in effect during the current fiscal year.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and other written or oral statements made from time to time by representatives of Broadridge may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical in nature, and which may be identified by the use of words such as "expects," "assumes," "projects," "anticipates," "estimates," "we believe," "could be," "on track," and other words of similar meaning, are forward-looking statements. In particular, information appearing in the "Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Guidance" section and statements about our three-year objectives are forward-looking statements.

These statements are based on management's expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed. These risks and uncertainties include those risk factors described and discussed in Part I, "Item 1A. Risk Factors" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2024 (the "2024 Annual Report"), as they may be updated in any future reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to the factors discussed in the 2024 Annual Report.

These risks include:

• changes in laws and regulations affecting Broadridge's clients or the services provided by Broadridge;
• Broadridge's reliance on a relatively small number of clients, the continued financial health of those clients, and the continued use by such clients of Broadridge's services with favorable pricing terms;
• a material security breach or cybersecurity attack affecting the information of Broadridge's clients;
• declines in participation and activity in the securities markets;
• the failure of Broadridge's key service providers to provide the anticipated levels of service;
• a disaster or other significant slowdown or failure of Broadridge's systems or error in the performance of Broadridge's services;
• overall market, economic and geopolitical conditions and their impact on the securities markets;
• the success of Broadridge in retaining and selling additional services to its existing clients and in obtaining new clients;
• Broadridge's failure to keep pace with changes in technology and demands of its clients;
• competitive conditions;
• Broadridge's ability to attract and retain key personnel; and
• the impact of new acquisitions and divestitures.

There may be other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. We can give no assurances that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if any of them do, what impact they will have on our results of operations and financial condition.

Broadridge disclaims any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, other than as required by law.

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader with over $6 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and public companies. Broadridge's infrastructure serves as a global communications hub enabling corporate governance by linking thousands of public companies and mutual funds to tens of millions of individual and institutional investors around the world. In addition, Broadridge's technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of on average more than U.S. $10 trillion of equities, fixed income and other securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work®, Broadridge is a part of the S&P 500^® Index, employing over 14,000 associates in 21 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.

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SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.