Cintas Corporation Announces Fiscal 2012 Second Quarter Results

Cintas Corporation, Cincinnati, reported results for its second quarter ended November 30, 2011. Revenue was a record $1.019 billion, representing an 8.8 percent increase compared to last year's second quarter. Organic growth, which adjusts for the impact of acquisitions, was 7.0 percent.

The company's second quarter operating income of $132.7 million was a 29.6 percent improvement as compared to last year's second quarter. This is the fourth consecutive quarter that operating income grew in excess of 25 percent over the comparable prior year quarter. Net income increased 33.1 percent to $74.4 million as compared to $55.9 million in last year's second quarter. Earnings per diluted share for the second quarter were $0.57, a 50.0 percent increase over the $0.38 earnings per diluted share reported in last year's second quarter.

"Revenue momentum continued throughout this quarter in our Rental Uniforms and Ancillary Products operating segment as well as in our First Aid, Safety and Fire Protection Services operating segment," said Scott D. Farmer, chief executive officer of Cintas Corporation. "Unfortunately, our Document Management Services operating segment lost some momentum this quarter due to a steep decline in recycled paper prices and the difficult European economic environment."

Farmer added, "Our talented team of employees, who we call partners, continued to execute our plan of selling profitable business, managing our cost structure and improving efficiencies through process improvement. This execution led to an operating margin of 13.0 percent, an impressive improvement over last year's second quarter operating margin of 10.9 percent and this year's first quarter operating margin of 12.6 percent."

The effective tax rate for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 was 35.5 percent, which reflected the resolution of certain tax audits. Last year's second quarter effective tax rate was 38.3 percent. We expect the effective tax rate for the entire 2012 fiscal year to be approximately 37.0 percent, as compared to 37.1 percent for the entire 2011 fiscal year.

"We entered our second fiscal quarter with a fair amount of uncertainty about the U.S. economy. Clearly, we are pleased that our business remained strong throughout the quarter. While we remain cautious about the U.S. economic picture, we have more confidence about our ability to execute in this less-than-robust environment. As a result, we are updating our fiscal 2012 guidance with revenue in the range of $4.075 billion to $4.125 billion and earnings per diluted share in the range of $2.16 to $2.20. This guidance assumes no deterioration in the current U.S. economy and that energy related costs and recycled paper prices remain at levels experienced at the end of our second quarter," Farmer said.

For more information, visit Cintas Corporation's website.