Xerox Earnings: Margins Suffer for Five Quarters Straight, Profit Drops

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) reported its results for the third quarter. Xerox engages in the development, manufacturing, marketing, services and finance of document equipment, software, solutions and services worldwide.

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Xerox Corporation Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Net income for the office automation and equipment fell to $288 million (21 cents per share) vs. $329 million (22 cents per share) a year earlier. This is a decline of 12.5% from the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Fell 0.5% to $5.4 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Xerox Corporation reported adjusted net income of 25 cents per share. By that measure, the company fell short of mean estimate of 26 cents per share. It fell short of the average revenue estimate of $5.59 billion.

Quoting Management: “Our third-quarter performance aligns with shifts in our business as services become a larger proportion of our revenue, and reflects the dynamics of a challenging economy that is creating cost pressures for large enterprises and governments,” said Ursula Burns, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer.

Key Stats:

The company fell short of estimates last quarter after being in line with expectations the quarter before with net income of 26 cents.

Revenue has dropped in the past two quarters. In the second quarter, revenue declined 1% to $5.4 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Looking Forward: Analysts appear increasingly negative about the company’s results for the next quarter. The average estimate for the fourth quarter has moved down from 36 cents a share to 35 cents over the last thirty days. Over the past sixty days, the average estimate for the fiscal year has reached $1.10 per share, a decline from $1.12.

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(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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