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Willis Towers (WLTW) Beats on Q4 Earnings, Issues '18 View

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Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company is a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. The company caters to large companies and mid-market and small businesses across the world.

Willis Towers is set to deliver $4.7 billion in long-term shareholder value via incremental revenue growth, cost synergies, and tax efficiencies besides unlocking balance sheet capacity. Strategic acquisitions, prudent capital management are positives for the company.

However, adverse forex, exposure to soft interest rate environment are headwinds faced by the company.

Currently, Willis Towers carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), but that could definitely change following the earnings release. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

Earnings:  Willis Towers beat our earnings estimate. Our consensus called for EPS of $2.11, and the company reported EPS of $2.21.

Revenues: Revenues beat estimate. Our consensus called for revenues of $1.9 billion, and the company reported revenues of $2.1 billion.

Key Stats to Note

Total costs of providing services increased 7% year over year to $1.9 million.

Adjusted operating income jumped 16.6% year over year to $436 million in the quarter.

Free cash flow for twelve months ended Dec 31, 2017 was $562 million, which plunged 21.3% compared to the same period in 2016.

Willis Towers projects adjusted earnings per share to be between $9.88 and $10.12 in 2018. Constant currency revenue growth is estimated to be around 3% and 4% on an organic basis.

Check back later for our full write up on this WLTW earnings report later!

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