Xerox Color Sales Up 11 Percent

The Norwalk, Conn.-based company earned $215 million or 24 cents per share for the quarter, including a restructuring charge of 5 cents per share. Revenues were $4.5 billion, with a four-point benefit from currency, up 8 percent over the same period last year.

The restructuring charge accounted for job cuts in the second quarter as Xerox let go of about 1,000 employees to cut costs.

Last year Xerox earned 28 cents per share, or $266 million, in the second quarter.

Analysts with Thompson Financial expected earnings of 24 cents per share.

Xerox's sales of "post-sales" products, like supplies, toner and ink, was up 10 percent for the quarter to $3.37 billion, while equipment sales were up 2 percent to $1.6 billion. Color MFP sales were up 34 percent.

Revenue from color overall was up 11 percent in the second quarter, and Xerox said its products produced more than 25 billion pages in the first half of the year. The number of color pages printed in the second quarter was up 28 percent, with 16 percent of pages printed now being color.

On the other hand, Xerox saw a 12 percent decline in production color printer installations because many large customers are holding out for a new product the company is set to launch in the third quarter, making the number for the quarter inconsistent with historical trends, according to Chairman and CEO Anne Mulcahey. Demand for black-and-white production printers fell 8 percent.

"While the U.S. economy creates challenges for our business with large enterprises, we're seeing consistent positive performance in the small and mid-size business market, with strong results from our developing markets and global imaging operations," Mulcahey said in a statement.

Demand for document services was also up for the quarter, she said.

Xerox repurchased $377 million in Xerox shares and the company's board authorized an additional $1 billion for share repurchase, bringing the total authorization to $1.7 billion.

Xerox expects to earn between 28 cents and 30 cents per share in the third quarter, in line with Wall Street's expectation of 29 cents per share.