H&R Block reports fiscal 2020 results

• Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the extension of the U.S. federal tax filing deadline until July 15th resulted in lower fiscal 2020 revenue and earnings compared to the prior year.
• The company ended the fiscal year with $2.7 billion¹ in cash and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share.
• An update on full tax season results will be included as a part of the fiscal 2021 first quarter earnings call.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) today released its financial results for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2020, and provided an update on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The pandemic, along with the related extension of the U.S. federal tax filing deadline from April 15th to July 15th, resulted in lower revenue and earnings compared to the prior year.

The company will provide an update on its complete tax season 2020 results during its fiscal 2021 first quarter earnings call.

“This has obviously been a challenging time for everyone, and I’m so proud of how our associates, tax pros, and franchisees responded in the face of the pandemic,” said Jeff Jones, H&R Block’s president and chief executive officer.  “This has impacted our business and challenged us to be agile and innovative as we made broad changes to our operating model in order to continue to help our clients.  We remain committed to transforming our business and will use this opportunity to reimagine our future.”

Fiscal 2020 Results From Continuing Operations

“Prior to the disruption to the tax industry caused by the pandemic, we were on track to deliver on our financial outlook for fiscal 2020.  Our focus now is on executing during the first quarter as we navigate this difficult time,” said Tony Bowen, H&R Block’s chief financial officer.  “We have adequate liquidity to meet anticipated operating cash needs through the start of tax season 2021 and are taking measures to reduce expenses to continue to fund future growth.”

Key Financial Metrics

• Total revenues of $2.6 billion decreased $455 million, or 14.7 percent, due to lower U.S. tax return volumes, partially offset by the addition of Wave.
• The COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on small businesses has impacted Wave’s client volumes and revenues. As a result, we evaluated Wave’s goodwill during our fiscal fourth quarter, which resulted in an impairment of $106.0 million.  We remain confident in Wave’s future, and in our ability to continue to deliver value to small business owners through Wave’s innovative platform.
• Total operating expenses of $2.6 billion increased $84 million, or 3.4 percent, primarily due to the impairment of Wave’s goodwill, Wave’s operating expenses, legal fees, and planned investments in technology, partially offset by compensation savings on lower tax return volume.
• Pretax loss of $3 million compared to pretax income of $545 million in the prior year.
• Earnings per share from continuing operations decreased $2.12 to $0.03; adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations decreased $1.55 to $0.84.

Dividends, Share Repurchases, and Debt Covenant

The company announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.26 per share, payable on July 1, 2020 to shareholders of record as of June 26, 2020.  H&R Block has paid quarterly dividends consecutively since the company went public in 1962.  Future actions regarding dividends will be dependent upon the Board’s approval following consideration of operating results, market conditions, and capital needs, among other factors.

In fiscal 2020, the company repurchased 10.1 million shares for $247 million, at an average price of $24.36.  No share repurchases were made in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.  Approximately $750 million remains under the company’s current share repurchase authorization, which expires in June 2022.

The company ended the fiscal year with $2.7 billion in cash, including $2.0 billion from its line of credit, which remains fully drawn.  The line of credit is subject to various conditions, including a covenant which requires us to maintain a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.5 on April 30 of each year.  The company did not meet this covenant based on fiscal 2020 financial results but has obtained a waiver from its lenders for the period ended April 30, 2020, with no changes to any of the terms of the line of credit.

Discontinued Operations

For information on Sand Canyon, please refer to disclosures in the company’s reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and other filings with the SEC.

Conference Call

Discussion of the fiscal 2020 results, outlook, and a general business update will occur during the company’s previously announced fiscal 2020 earnings conference call for analysts, institutional investors, and shareholders.  The call is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern time on June 16, 2020. To access the call, please dial the number below approximately 10 minutes prior to the scheduled starting time:

U.S./Canada (866) 987-6821 or International (630) 652-5951

Conference ID: 5554906

The call, along with a presentation for viewing, will also be webcast in a listen-only format for the media and public. The link to the webcast can be accessed directly at https://investors.hrblock.com.  The presentation will be posted on the Quarterly Results page at https://investors.hrblock.com following the conclusion of the call.

A replay of the call will be available beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on June 16, 2020, and continuing for seven days by dialing (855) 859-2056 (U.S./Canada) or (404) 537-3406 (International). The conference ID is 5554906. The webcast will be available for replay beginning on June 17, 2020, and continuing for 90 days at https://investors.hrblock.com.

About H&R Block

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) provides help and inspires confidence in its clients and communities everywhere through global tax preparation, financial services, and small business solutions. The company is disrupting the tax industry by providing consumers price transparency and with digital platforms such as Tax Pro Go^SM. H&R Block believes the best solutions blend digital capabilities with human expertise and care. For more information visit hrblock.com/news and follow @HRBlockNews.

About Non-GAAP Financial Information

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.”

Forward-Looking Statements

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,” “commits,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “projects,” “forecasts,” “targets,” “would,” “will,” “should,” “goal,” “could,” “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, client trajectory, income, effective tax rate, earnings per share, cost savings, capital expenditures, dividends, share repurchases, liquidity, capital structure, market share, industry volumes, 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. They also include the expected impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including, without limitation, the impact on economic and financial markets, the Company’s capital resources and financial condition, the expected use of proceeds under the Company’s revolving credit facility, future expenditures, potential regulatory actions, such as extensions of tax filing deadlines or other related relief, changes in consumer behaviors and modifications to the Company’s operations related thereto. 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 most recently completed fiscal year 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 https://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.

For Further Information

Investor Relations:           Colby Brown, (816) 854-4559, colby.brown@hrblock.com

Media Relations:              Susan Waldron, (816) 854-5522, susan.waldron@hrblock.com

TABLES FOLLOW

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL INFORMATION

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.

We make adjustments for certain non-GAAP financial measures related to amortization of intangibles from acquisitions and goodwill impairments. We believe removing the impacts of amortization of acquired intangibles and goodwill impairments provides a more meaningful indicator of performance and will assist in understanding our financial results.

We may consider whether other significant items that arise in the future should be excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures.

We measure the performance of our business using a variety of metrics, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from continuing operations, adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, EBITDA margin from continuing operations, adjusted EBITDA margin from continuing operations, adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations and free cash flow. 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.