A month after retiring as chairman of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Frank Martire last week joined another financial technology firm, along with another former FIS executive.
Atlanta-based NCR Corp. named Martire executive chairman and also announced it hired Michael Hayford as chief executive officer.
Hayford served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Jacksonville-based FIS from 2009 to 2013, when Martire was CEO of the bank technology company.
His association with Martire goes back even further. Martire was CEO and Hayford was president of Metavante Technologies Inc. when it was acquired by FIS in 2009, and both executives then joined FIS.
“Frank and I have worked together since 2003. Together we have successfully built and grown Metavante and later built FIS into the global industry leader for financial technology,” Hayford said in an NCR conference call with analysts last week, adding he looked forward to working again with Martire.
NCR, founded in 1884 as National Cash Register, now provides electronic financial transaction services.
FIS last week reported higher first-quarter earnings and slightly increased its earnings forecast for the full year.
Adjusted first-quarter earnings of $1.09 a share were 27 cents higher than the first quarter of 2017.
Revenue fell 3.8 percent to $2.07 billion because of the sale of two businesses, but FIS said organic revenue grew 3.3 percent.
FIS said it is raising its full-year earnings forecast for all of 2018 by 4 cents a share to a range of $5.14 to $5.34, which would be 20 percent to 25 percent higher than 2017.
“Although one quarter does not make the year, we are very pleased with the start of 2018,” Chief Financial Officer James Woodall said in the company’s quarterly conference call.
Stein Mart Inc. said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that Vice Chairman Jack Williams, a former CEO of the company, is retiring from the board of directors.
Williams, 80, has been a board member since 1984 and served as chief executive of the Jacksonville-based fashion retailer from September 2001 to February 2003.
He has served as vice chairman of the board since then.
Stein Mart did not announce a replacement for Williams.
Advanced Disposal Services Inc. reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of 9 cents a share, up from 4 cents the previous year, with revenue rising 5 percent to $364.7 million.
Sales of recycled materials account for just 2 percent of the Ponte Vedra-based waste services company’s revenue, CEO Richard Burke said in Advanced Disposal’s conference call Thursday.
However, the company is looking at initiatives to reduce volatility in that business, he said.
“Ultimately, our goal is to help customers increase the percentage of items that have a secondary market, such as cardboard, while at the same time reducing waste, or what we call contamination, in recycling bins,” he said.
“This includes having honest conversations around commodities like glass that in many instances don’t have a viable secondary market, are harmful to our equipment and our employees and can contaminate fibers that would otherwise be recycled.”
Burke said the company is working with customers to find solutions to these issues.
Web.com Group Inc. reported first-quarter earnings of $4.6 million, or 9 cents a share, down from $6.5 million, or 13 cents, the previous year.
The first-quarter results were affected by $2.7 million in restructuring costs after an unspecified number of jobs were cut in March.
The Jacksonville-based company, which employed 3,600 at the end of 2017, would only say a “small percentage” of jobs were cut.
Web.com provides website development services for small and medium-sized businesses. During its conference call Thursday, CEO David Brown said the company is focused on providing additional services to its customers to compete in a digital and mobile world.
“We’re confident that our repositioning of the business to focus on value-added services places Web.com in the sweet spot of what customers are looking for,” he said.
Regency Centers Corp. last week reported higher first-quarter earnings, and officials of the Jacksonville-based shopping center developer continued to express confidence in the retailing environment.
Regency, which operates shopping centers across the country anchored mainly by supermarkets, said its portfolio was 95.1 percent leased as of March 31.
“The impact from bankruptcy in retailer closures continues to be minimal. We had no Southeastern Grocer locations on the closure list and our five locations, which are significantly below market, are expected to remain operating,” Executive Vice President of Operations Jim Thompson said in Regency’s conference call.
Jacksonville-based Southeastern, operator of Winn-Dixie and three other supermarket chains, is closing 94 stores as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Regency reported first-quarter operating funds from operations of 89 cents a share, 5 cents higher than the previous year.
Funds from operations are earnings excluding noncash charges such as depreciation and amortization expense and are a key indicator of a real estate investment trust’s performance.
Rayonier Inc. reported first-quarter earnings of 31 cents a share, up from adjusted earnings of 5 cents a share the previous year.
Adjusted revenue rose 33 percent to $203.2 million.
In Rayonier’s conference call, CEO David Nunes said the company saw gains in all three of its timber segments (the Southeast and Northwest U.S. and New Zealand), and also increased earnings from its real estate business.
The real estate segment includes Rayonier’s Wildlight development in Nassau County, where the company relocated its corporate headquarters last year.
“We’re very pleased to see that our real estate strategy is yielding strong results and meaningfully augmenting our core timberland returns,” Nunes said.
Publix Super Markets Inc. reported higher sales and earnings for the first quarter, helped in part by the early Easter holiday during the quarter.
The Lakeland-based supermarket chain reported earnings of 93 cents a share, compared with 73 cents in the first quarter of 2017 when Easter fell in the second quarter.
Publix also said the lower federal income tax rate helped this year’s earnings.
Total sales rose 6.8 percent to $9.3 billion and comparable-store sales (sales at stores open for more than one year) rose 5.1 percent.
Based on the latest appraisal, Publix said its stock price rose from $41.40 on March 1 to $41.75 on May 1. The stock is not publicly traded and is made available for sale only to Publix employees.
