Pitney Bowes Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Financial Results

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI), a global technology company that provides commerce solutions in the areas of ecommerce, shipping, mailing and financial services, today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2020.

"The fourth quarter was a remarkable ending to an extraordinary year,” said Marc B. Lautenbach, President and CEO, Pitney Bowes. “Revenue growth was the highest modern day, organic growth rate on-record for us.

“We have been on a journey to transform the business,” Lautenbach continued. “Even with the tremendous uncertainty in our economy and how the pandemic will play out, we are now poised to enter this next chapter of our transformation, profitable revenue growth. While I am proud of what the team has accomplished, we all recognize there is more work to do and we are ready.”

Fourth Quarter 2020

• Revenue of $1.0 billion, growth of 24 percent on a reported basis and 23 percent excluding the impact of currency
• GAAP EPS of $0.11; Adjusted EPS of $0.13
• EPS reflects $0.03 in tax benefits primarily related to deferred tax balances in certain international tax jurisdictions.
• GAAP cash from operations of $111 million; free cash flow of $97 million
• The Company reduced debt by $31 million.
• Shipping-related revenues represented 54 percent of total revenue.
• Global Ecommerce revenue exceeded $500 million for the first time, representing growth of 60 percent over prior year.
• Global Ecommerce EBIT dollars and margin improved from prior quarter and over prior year, with positive EBITDA in the quarter.
• Presort Services revenue improved from prior quarter and was flat to prior year.
• SendTech grew revenue, EBIT and EBITDA dollars from prior quarter and over prior year.
• SendTech shipping revenue was $35 million and grew at a double-digit rate.

Full Year 2020

• Revenue of $3.6 billion, growth of 11 percent
• GAAP EPS loss of $1.06; Adjusted EPS of $0.30
• GAAP cash from operations of $298 million; free cash flow of $279 million
• The Company ended the year with $940 million in cash and short term investments.
• The Company reduced debt by $175 million.
• Shipping-related revenues represented 50 percent of total revenue.
• Global Ecommerce revenue of $1.6 billion, representing growth of 41 percent.
• Presort Services processed a total of 16.7 billion pieces.
• SendTech shipped 20,000 units of the SendPro Mailstation since launching in April.

Earnings per share results are summarized in the table below:

* The sum of the earnings per share may not equal the totals due to rounding.

Business Segment Reporting

The Commerce Services group includes the Global Ecommerce and Presort Services segments. Global Ecommerce facilitates domestic retail and ecommerce shipping solutions, including fulfillment and returns, and global cross-border ecommerce transactions. Presort Services provides sortation services to qualify large volumes of First Class Mail, Marketing Mail, Marketing Mail Flats and Bound Printed Matter for postal workshare discounts.

The Sending Technology Solutions segment offers physical and digital mailing and shipping technology solutions, financing, services, supplies and other applications for small and medium businesses to help simplify and save on the sending, tracking and receiving of letters, parcels and flats.

The sum of the segment results may not equal the totals due to rounding.

Commerce Services

Global Ecommerce

Revenue benefited from growth in volumes in Domestic Parcel, Cross Border and Digital Delivery Services. EBIT and EBITDA benefitted from the increased demand and a peak surcharge, offset by higher costs, particularly around postal, transportation and labor.

Presort Services

Revenue was flat to prior year driven by flat First Class revenue, a decline in Marketing Mail and growth in Marketing Mail Flats and Bound Printed Matter. EBIT and EBITDA margins were relatively in line with prior quarters. Compared to prior year, EBIT and EBITDA declined largely due to higher medical claims and increased labor costs as well as Covid-related direct costs.

SendTech Solutions

Revenue growth over prior year driven by equipment sales and business services, partly offset by declines in support services, supplies and financing revenues. EBIT and EBITDA margins improved from prior year driven largely by lower expenses.

2021 Expectations

The Company expects annual revenue to grow over prior year in the low-to-mid single digit range, making 2021 the fifth consecutive year of constant currency growth. The Company expects adjusted EPS to grow over prior year. The Company also expects lower free cash flow primarily due to the changes in certain working capital items that benefitted 2020 and are not expected to continue at the same level in 2021.

Conference Call and Webcast

Management of Pitney Bowes will discuss the Company’s results in a broadcast over the Internet today at 8:00 a.m. EST. Instructions for listening to the earnings results via the Web are available on the Investor Relations page of the Company’s web site at www.pitneybowes.com.

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) is a global technology company providing commerce solutions that power billions of transactions. Clients around the world, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500, rely on the accuracy and precision delivered by Pitney Bowes solutions, analytics, and APIs in the areas of ecommerce fulfillment, shipping and returns; cross-border ecommerce; office mailing and shipping; presort services; and financing. For 100 years, Pitney Bowes has been innovating and delivering technologies that remove the complexity of getting commerce transactions precisely right. For additional information visit Pitney Bowes, the Craftsmen of Commerce, at www.pitneybowes.com.

Use of Non-GAAP Measures

The Company's financial results are reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP); however, in its disclosures the Company uses certain non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), adjusted earnings per share (EPS), revenue growth on a constant currency basis and free cash flow.

The Company reports measures such as adjusted EBIT, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS to exclude the impact of items like discontinued operations, restructuring charges, gains, losses and costs related to acquisitions and dispositions, asset impairment charges, goodwill impairment charges and other unusual or one-time items. While these are actual Company income or expenses, they can mask underlying trends associated with its business. Such items are often inconsistent in amount and frequency and as such, the non-GAAP measures provide investors greater insight into the underlying operating trends of the business.

In addition, revenue growth is presented on a constant currency basis to exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates since the prior period under comparison. Constant currency is calculated by converting the current period non-U.S. dollar denominated revenue using the prior year’s exchange rate for the comparable quarter. We believe that excluding the impacts of currency exchange rates provides investors a better understanding of the underlying revenue performance. A reconciliation of reported revenue to constant currency revenue can be found in the attached financial schedules.

The Company reports free cash flow in order to provide investors insight into the amount of cash that management could have available for other discretionary uses. Free cash flow adjusts GAAP cash from operations for cash flows of discontinued operations, capital expenditures, restructuring payments, changes in customer deposits held at the Pitney Bowes Bank, transaction costs and other special items. A reconciliation of GAAP cash from operations to free cash flow can be found in the attached financial schedules.

Segment EBIT is the primary measure of profitability and operational performance at the segment level. Segment EBIT is determined by deducting from segment revenue the related costs and expenses attributable to the segment. Segment EBIT excludes interest, taxes, general corporate expenses not allocated to a particular business segment, restructuring charges and goodwill and asset impairments, which are recognized on a consolidated basis. The Company also provides segment EBITDA, which further excludes depreciation and amortization expense for the segment, as an additional useful measure of segment profitability and operational performance. A reconciliation of segment EBIT and EBITDA to net income can be found in the attached financial schedules.

Pitney Bowes has provided a quantitative reconciliation to GAAP in supplemental schedules. This information can be found at the Company's web site www.pb.com/investorrelations.

This document contains “forward-looking statements” about the Company’s expected or potential future business and financial performance. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about its future revenue and earnings guidance and other statements about future events or conditions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include the severity, magnitude and duration of the Covid-19 pandemic (Covid-19), including governments' responses to Covid-19, the efficacy and availability of a vaccine, its continuing impact on our operations, employees, the availability and cost of labor and transportation, global supply chain and demand across our and our clients' businesses as well as any deterioration or instability in global macroeconomic conditions. Other factors, which could cause future financial performance to differ materially from expectations, and which may also be exacerbated by Covid-19 or a negative change in the economy, include, without limitation: declining physical mail volumes; changes in postal regulations or operations, or the financial health of posts in the U.S. or other major markets or significant changes to the broader postal or shipping industry; changes in our contractual relationships with the United States Postal Service (USPS) or USPS’ performance under those contracts; our ability to continue to grow and manage volumes, gain additional economies of scale and improve profitability within our Commerce Services group; changes in labor and transportation availability and costs; third-party suppliers' ability to provide products and services required by us and our clients; competitive factors, including pricing pressures, technological developments and the introduction of new products and services by competitors; the loss of some of our larger clients in our Commerce Services group; expenses and potential impacts resulting from a breach of security, including cyber-attacks or other comparable events; our success at managing customer credit risk; and other factors as more fully outlined in the Company's 2019 Form 10-K Annual Report and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pitney Bowes assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, events or developments.

Note: Consolidated statements of income; revenue, EBIT and EBITDA by business segment; and reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures for the three months and twelve months ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, and consolidated balance sheets at December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 are attached.

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