ADP REPORTS THIRD QUARTER FISCAL 2009 RESULTS;
Third Quarter Revenues Decline 2%; EPS from Continuing Operations Increases 4%;
CONFIRMS FISCAL 2009 REVENUE AND EPS GROWTH FORECASTS
ROSELAND, New Jersey, May 5, 2009 - Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADP)
reported a 2% revenue decline to $2.37 billion for the third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2009, Gary C.
Butler, president and chief executive officer, announced today. Revenue was negatively impacted by the
severe economic conditions and over 3 percentage points of unfavorable foreign exchange rates during
the quarter. Pretax earnings from continuing operations declined 1% and net earnings from continuing
operations were essentially flat. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 4% to
$0.80 from $0.77 a year ago on fewer shares outstanding. Fiscal year-to-date, ADP acquired 13.8 million
shares of its stock for treasury at a cost of about $550 million. Cash and marketable securities at March
31, 2009 were $1.47 billion.
Commenting on the results, Mr. Butler said, “ADP’s third quarter results were negatively impacted
by the recessionary economic environment and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The selling
environment continued to be soft in Employer Services and PEO Services across all market segments.
As anticipated, our same-store-sales employment metric was also negative for the quarter which is
indicative of the steep rise in U.S. unemployment. Dealer Services’ results reflect the continued difficult
state of the automotive market. Notwithstanding these challenges, ADP continues to control expenses
and appropriately align our expense base with our revenue growth.
Employer Services
“Employer Services’ revenues increased 1% in the third quarter compared with the same period
last year. As previously disclosed, we anticipated slower revenue growth for Employer Services during
the second half of fiscal 2009 due to the negative impact of the weak economy on sales, retention and
employment levels. In line with our expectations, revenues in the United States from our payroll and
payroll tax filing business declined 3% and beyond payroll revenues grew 6% in the third quarter
compared with the same period last year. Worldwide client retention, while still at historically high levels,
declined 1.0 percentage point fiscal year to date through March 31, 2009. The number of employees on
our clients' payrolls in the U.S. decreased 4.2% in the third quarter as measured on a same-store-sales
basis for clients on our AutoPay platform. The dollar value of new business sold worldwide during the
quarter in Employer Services and PEO Services was 10% less than the prior year’s third quarter. The
dollar value of new business sold during the quarter represents the expected new annual recurring
revenue dollars to be generated from each sale. Employer Services’ pretax margin expanded 70 basis
points from continued expense control and lower selling expenses from lower new business sales,
partially offset by investments in client service resources.
PEO Services
“PEO Services’ revenues increased 10% and pretax margin improved 80 basis points in the third
quarter compared with the same period last year. Average worksite employees paid by PEO Services
increased 14,000, or 8%, to over 195,000, compared with the third quarter of fiscal 2008.
Dealer Services
“Dealer Services’ revenues declined 3% in the third quarter, while pretax margin expanded 20
basis points assisted by expense control initiatives, compared with the same period last year. The
number of North American auto dealerships continued to decline from consolidations and closings.
Despite the decline in the number of dealerships, ADP improved its market share compared with a year
ago in both the North American and International marketplaces due to successful competitive win rates as
well as increased deployment of our Autoline solution.
Interest on Funds Held for Clients and Interest Expense
"The safety and liquidity of our clients’ funds are the foremost objectives of our investment
strategy. Client funds are invested in accordance with ADP’s prudent and conservative investment
guidelines and the credit quality of the investment portfolio is predominantly AAA/AA.
“For the third fiscal quarter, interest on funds held for clients declined $34.2 million, or 17.2%, to
$164.3 million due to a decline of 50 basis points in the average interest yield to 3.7%, and a decline of
6.2% in average client funds balances to $17.6 billion.
“Interest expense for the third quarter declined $5.4 million, or 68.6%, to $2.5 million compared
with the same period last year. The decline in interest expense was primarily the result of a 340 basis
point decline in our average commercial paper borrowing rate to 0.2%, partially offset by higher average
daily commercial paper borrowings which increased $0.6 billion, to $1.1 billion. We utilize our short-term
financing arrangements to satisfy our short-term funding requirements related to client funds obligations
in order to extend the maturities of our investment portfolio, thus averaging our way through an interest
rate cycle.
Fiscal 2009 forecast
“We continue to anticipate achieving 1% to 2% revenue growth, and the low end of our 10% to
14% growth forecast in diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, up from $2.18 in fiscal
2008 which excludes the net one-time gain of $0.02 per share recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.
Our revenue growth forecast for the year is negatively impacted approximately two percentage points due
to our assumption of unfavorable foreign exchange rates continuing for the remainder of the fiscal year.
“Our business segment forecasts are also unchanged. For Employer Services, we continue to
anticipate revenue growth of about 4% and about 100 basis points of pretax margin expansion. We
continue to anticipate 12% to 13% revenue growth for PEO Services, and up to 30 basis points of pretax
margin expansion. Despite the difficult selling environment, we are still on track to deliver over $1 billion
worldwide in new business sales for Employer Services and PEO Services on a combined basis, which
represents a decline of up to 13% from about $1.15 billion in new business sales last fiscal year. For
Dealer Services, we continue to anticipate a 2% to 3% decline in revenues, and a flat pretax margin
compared with a year ago.
“There is no change to our interest on funds held for clients forecast. We continue to anticipate a
decline of $75 to $80 million, or 11% to 12%, from $684.5 million in fiscal 2008. This is based on an
approximate 40 basis point decline in the expected average interest yield to about 4.0%, and a 2% to 3%
decline in average client funds balances. This forecast continues to include an unfavorable Canadian
foreign exchange rate which is expected to negatively impact full-year average client funds balance
growth by 1.5 percentage points. The interest assumptions in our client funds portfolio forecast assume
overnight funds will yield nearly 0.4% on average for the remainder of the fiscal year. The three-and-ahalf
and five-year U.S. government agency rates based on the forward yield curves as of May 1, 2009
were used to forecast new purchase rates for the client extended and client long portfolios, respectively.
“We continue to expect interest expense to decline about $50 million from $80.5 million in fiscal
2008 primarily from lower interest expense on our short-term financing related to our client funds
extended investment strategy. Our average commercial paper borrowing rates are expected to decline
approximately 320 basis points to about 1.0%, partially offset by an expected increase of about $0.5
billion in average daily commercial paper borrowings to about $2.0 billion.
“Our results, though lower than historical ADP standards, are due to our focused execution
against our 5-point strategic growth program, as well as the strength of ADP’s business model. While in
the midst of one of the most challenging global economies of recent decades, I remain confident in ADP’s
opportunities for longer-term growth. I am especially proud of ADP’s AAA credit rating. The breadth of
our product portfolio has never been stronger. We are doing the right things to position ADP to leverage
an economic recovery,” Mr. Butler concluded.
Website Schedules
The schedules of quarterly and full-year revenue and pretax earnings by reportable segment for
fiscal years 2007, 2008, and through the third quarter of 2009 have been posted to the Investor Relations
home page of our website www.adp.com under Financial
Data, along with the quarterly and full-year statements of earnings for fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008.
An analyst conference call will be held today, Tuesday, May 5 at 8:30 a.m. EDT. A live webcast
of the call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis. To listen to the webcast and view the slide
presentation, go to ADP’s home page, www.adp.com, or ADP’s Investor Relations home page,and click on the webcast icon. The presentation will be
available to download and print approximately 60 minutes before the webcast at the ADP Investor
Relations home page. ADP’s news releases, current
financial information, SEC filings and Investor Relations presentations are accessible at the same Web
site.
About ADP
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADP), with nearly $9 billion in revenues and over 585,000 clients, is one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing solutions. Leveraging nearly 60 years of experience, ADP offers a wide range of HR, payroll, tax and benefits administration solutions from a single source. ADP's easy-to-use, cost-effective solutions for employers provide superior value to companies of all types and sizes. ADP is also a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine and recreational vehicle dealers throughout the world. For more information about ADP or to contact a local ADP sales office, reach us at 1.800.225.5237 or visit the company's Web site at www.ADP.com.
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