Xylem Increases Its 2020 Financial Targets and Reaffirms Its Strategy to Reflect Accelerated Growth
At its Investor Day in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Xylem (NYSE:XYL), a leading global water technology company, today will update its 2020 financial guidance and showcase the broad portfolio of smart infrastructure technologies and solutions provided by its Sensus and Visenti businesses. Xylem acquired Sensus and Visenti in October 2016. Xylem President and CEO Patrick Decker, along with other senior leadership, will provide an update on the Company’s plans to drive above-market organic growth and capture significant cost and revenue synergies through the integration of Sensus.
“The addition of Sensus is reshaping the growth and profitability profile of Xylem by expanding our smart infrastructure portfolio and increasing our exposure to faster-growing end markets and geographies,” said Mr. Decker. “With the combination of Sensus’ higher growth rate, the robust revenue synergies we expect to realize and our ongoing productivity initiatives, we now expect to deliver higher organic revenue growth and an additional 100 basis points of margin expansion by 2020 versus previous targets laid out in 2015. In addition, our ability to generate significantly more operating cash flow as well as our larger scale and leverage capacity will provide us with an additional $1.8 billion for disciplined capital deployment, which brings the total capital available for deployment from 2015 through 2020 to $5.3 billion. With our acquired businesses serving as catalysts for accelerated growth, we are well positioned to create even more value for our stakeholders.”
Xylem now projects to generate organic revenue growth of four to six percent through 2020, up from the previous forecast of three to five percent. The Company expects to achieve 400 to 500 basis points of operating margin expansion by 2020 – a 100 basis-point increase from the previous target of 300 to 400 basis points – driven by its ongoing focus on driving productivity as well as the expected impact from the cost and revenue synergies from its recent acquisitions. Xylem anticipates delivering adjusted core earnings per share growth in the mid-teen range and, with the impact of capital deployment, the growth range is projected to be in the high teens.
Xylem also announced that it will combine its Analytics, Sensus and Visenti businesses, effective second quarter 2017. As a result of this change, the Company will report the financial and operational results from these businesses as one segment. Xylem’s Water Infrastructure segment will no longer include the results of its Analytics business. The Applied Water segment remains unchanged.
Reaffirming 2017 Outlook
Xylem also reaffirmed its 2017 outlook, including full-year revenue in the range of $4.5 to $4.6 billion, up 20 to 22 percent from the 2016 results, including growth from previously announced acquisitions and projected unfavorable impacts of foreign exchange translation. On an organic basis, Xylem’s revenue growth is expected to be in the range of one to three percent, and two to four percent on a pro forma basis.
The Company continues to project full-year 2017 adjusted operating margin to be in the range of 13.2 to 13.7 percent, resulting in adjusted earnings per share of $2.20 to $2.35. This represents an increase of 8 to 16 percent from Xylem’s 2016 adjusted results. Excluding projected unfavorable impacts of foreign exchange translation, Xylem’s adjusted earnings per share growth is anticipated to be in the range of 12 to 20 percent. The Company’s adjusted operating margin and earnings outlook excludes projected integration, restructuring and realignment costs of approximately $30 million for the year. Excluding revenue, Xylem provides guidance only on a non-GAAP basis due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting certain amounts that would be included in GAAP earnings, such as discrete tax items, without unreasonable effort.
All presentations and a Q&A session at the Investor Day will be webcast live at http://investors.xyleminc.com. A replay will also be available.
About Xylem
Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology company committed to developing innovative technology solutions to the world’s water challenges. The Company’s products and services move, treat, analyze, monitor and return water to the environment in public utility, industrial, residential and commercial building services. With its October 2016acquisition of Sensus, Xylem added smart metering, network technologies and advanced data analytics for water, gas and electric utilities to its portfolio of solutions. The combined Company’s nearly 16,000 employees bring broad applications expertise with a strong focus on identifying comprehensive, sustainable solutions. Headquartered in Rye Brook, New York with 2016 revenue of $3.8 billion, Xylem does business in more than 150 countries through a number of market-leading product brands.
