KANSAS CITY, MO - (Marketwired) - December 07, 2016 - H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) today released its financial results for the fiscal 2017 second quarter ended October 31, 2016. The company normally reports a second quarter operating loss due to the seasonality of its tax business. The fiscal second quarter typically represents less than 5% of annual revenues and approximately 15% of annual expenses.
"I'm pleased with our second quarter results, as revenues were up and expenses were down. I'm also extremely excited for the upcoming tax season. We have been hard at work developing and implementing a comprehensive and aggressive plan designed to deliver stronger results in tax season 2017," said Bill Cobb, H&R Block's president and chief executive officer. "Our associates and franchisees are excited about our new promotional offerings, including the previously announced interest-free Refund Advance loan and planned changes to our service delivery models. We are ready for the tax season to begin."
Fiscal 2017 Second Quarter Results From Continuing Operations
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"Our expense reduction efforts are starting to bear results," said Tony Bowen, H&R Block's chief financial officer. "These reductions will enable us to fund client growth initiatives to deliver a successful fiscal year 2017."
The accrual for contingent losses related to representation and warranty claims at Sand Canyon Corporation, a separate legal entity from H&R Block, Inc., remained unchanged at $26 million.
During the second quarter of fiscal 2017, the company repurchased and retired approximately 7.6 million shares at an aggregate price of $168.4 million, or $22.16 per share. As of October 31, 2016, 211.5 million shares were outstanding.
The company completed these share repurchases under a $3.5 billion share repurchase program approved by the company's board of directors in August 2015, which runs through June 2019. Under this program, the company has repurchased approximately 66 million shares of its common stock, or 23.9% of outstanding shares, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.2 billion.
As previously announced, a quarterly cash dividend of 22 cents per share is payable on January 3, 2017 to shareholders of record as of December 5, 2016. H&R Block has paid quarterly dividends consecutively since the company went public in 1962.
Discussion of the fiscal 2017 second quarter results, future outlook and a general business update will occur during the company's previously announced fiscal second quarter earnings conference call for analysts, institutional investors, and shareholders. The call is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern time on December 7, 2016. To access the call, please dial the number below approximately 10 minutes prior to the scheduled starting time:
U.S./Canada (866) 872-0323 or International (443) 842-7595
Conference ID: 89483597
The call will also be webcast in a listen-only format for the media and public. The link to the webcast can be accessed directly at http://investors.hrblock.com.
A replay of the call will be available beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on December 7, 2016, and continuing until January 7, 2017, by dialing (855) 859-2056 (U.S./Canada) or (404) 537-3406 (International). The conference ID is 89483597. The webcast will be available for replay December 8, 2016 at http://investors.hrblock.com.
H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) is a global consumer tax services provider. Tax return preparation services are provided by professional tax preparers in approximately 12,000 company-owned and franchise retail tax offices worldwide, and through H&R Block tax software products for the DIY consumer. H&R Block also offers adjacent Tax Plus products and services. In fiscal 2016, H&R Block had annual revenues of over $3 billion with 23.2 million tax returns prepared worldwide. For more information, visit the H&R Block Newsroom at http://newsroom.hrblock.com/.
This press release and the accompanying tables include non-GAAP financial information. For a description of these non-GAAP financial measures, including the reasons management uses each measure, and reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, please see the section of the accompanying tables titled "Non-GAAP Financial Information."
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include words or variation of words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "targets," "would," "will," "should," "goal," "could" or "may" or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements provide management's current expectations or predictions of future conditions, events or results. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. They may include estimates of revenues, income, earnings per share, cost savings, capital expenditures, dividends, share repurchases, liquidity, capital structure or other financial items, descriptions of management's plans or objectives for future operations, products or services, or descriptions of assumptions underlying any of the above. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and reflect the company's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance or events. Furthermore, the company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions, factors, or expectations, new information, data or methods, future events or other changes, except as required by law. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, a variety of economic, competitive and regulatory factors, many of which are beyond the company's control, that are described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2016 in the section entitled "Risk Factors" and additional factors we may describe from time to time in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may get such filings for free at our website at http://investors.hrblock.com. You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors and, consequently, you should not consider any such list to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.
1 All amounts in this release are unaudited. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons refer to the current period compared to the corresponding prior year period.
2 All per share amounts are based on fully diluted shares at the end of the corresponding period.
3The company reports adjusted financial performance, and other non-GAAP financial measures, which it believes are a better indication of the company's core operations. See "About Non-GAAP Financial Information" below for more information regarding financial measures not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
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Note: Effective May 1, 2016, we adopted the provisions of Accounting Standards Update No. 2015-3, "Interest - Imputation of Interest," (ASU 2015-3) on a retrospective basis. Accordingly, debt issuance costs related to our Senior Notes are included in long-term debt in the consolidated balance sheets. Amounts for prior periods have been retrospectively adjusted to conform to the current period presentation.
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(1) See "Non-GAAP Financial Information" for a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures.
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The accompanying press release contains non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Because these measures are not measures of financial performance under GAAP and are susceptible to varying calculations, they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures for other companies.
We consider our non-GAAP financial measures to be performance measures and a useful metric for management and investors to evaluate and compare the ongoing operating performance of our business on a consistent basis across reporting periods, as it eliminates the effect of items that are not indicative of our core operating performance.
The following are descriptions of adjustments we make for our non-GAAP financial measures:
We may consider whether other significant items that arise in the future should also be excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures.
We measure the performance of our business using a variety of metrics, including EBITDA from continuing operations and adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, adjusted pretax and net income of continuing operations, and adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, adjusted pretax and net income from continuing operations, and adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations eliminate the impact of items that we do not consider indicative of our core operating performance and, we believe, provide meaningful information to assist in understanding our financial results, analyzing trends in our underlying business, and assessing our prospects for future performance. We also use EBITDA from continuing operations and pretax income of continuing operations, each subject to permitted adjustments, as performance metrics in incentive compensation calculations for our employees.
SOURCE H & R Block
Colby Brown
Investor Relations
(816) 854-4559
Gene King
Media Relations
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