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Xerox Corp. leaders were bullish this week on the company's 2011 financial outlook, given that benefits from last year's multibillion-dollar acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. are being realized.
"We have momentum and every expectation we will continue to build on it in 2011," said Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns during a conference call Wednesday morning to discuss the company's fourth-quarter and year-end financial results. "We all had great aspirations and dreams for ACS, and it's all coming through."
Investors' response, however, was different, given Xerox's first-quarter guidance and the announcement that its long-time chief financial officer would soon retire. Its stock (NYSE: XRX) fell more than 7 percent Wednesday, closing in the middle of its 52-week range of $7.67 to $12.08 a share.
Xerox's fourth-quarter earnings dropped 5 percent compared with last year, largely because of restructuring costs. The firm reported earnings of $171 million, or 12 cents a share, down from $180 million, or 20 cents a share, a year earlier. Without restructuring and other one-time expenses, earnings would have been 29 cents a share.
Revenue rose 42 percent to nearly $6 billion, largely because of the ACS acquisition.
For the...