Xerox Releases First Quarter 2006 Earnings

In news that surprised analysts on Wall Street, but probably not the digital copier market, Xerox reported a drop in revenue for the first quarter of 2006. Total revenue fell two percent to $3.70 billion from $3.78 billion in fiscal 2005.

Xerox showed a profit of $186 million, 20 cents a share, after preferred dividends compared to $196 million, 20 cents, last year. Wall Street analysts had predicted 21 cents a share in profits with revenue of $3.8 billion.

At the same time, gross margins slipped 1.6 percentage points to 40.2 percent. The numbers reflect the slowdown in the high volume black and white digital copier market. Xerox has not been able to move its high volume black and white equipment at the same impressive rate as its more popular Xerox DocuColor series, including models like the Xerox 6060 and Xerox iGen3.

Xerox is also facing strong competition from Canon with its Canon imageRUNNER 110, which runs on the same print engine as the Heidelberg 9110, Kodak NexPress 9110, and IBM Infoprint 2000. The high volume black-and-white models from Canon have a lower sticker price and found a strong following in the commercial print arena.

The full details of Xerox's quarter can be found here. If you're looking at a high volume, digital duplicator from Xerox, please consider talking to JJ Bender.