Image source: The Motley Fool.
Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (IPG 0.40%)
Q1Â 2019 Earnings Call
April 26, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the Interpublic Group First Quarter 2019 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode until the question-and-answer portion. (Operator Instructions) This conference is being recorded. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time.
I would now like to introduce Mr. Jerry Leshne, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Jerry Leshne -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Good morning. Thank you for joining us. We have posted our earnings release and our slide presentation on our website interpublic.com. This morning we are joined by Michael Roth and Frank Mergenthaler. We will begin with prepared remarks to be followed by Q&A. We plan to conclude before market open at 9:30 Eastern.
During this call, we will refer to forward-looking statements about our Company. These are subject to the uncertainties in the cautionary statement that is included in our earnings release and the slide presentation, and further detailed in our 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. We will also refer to certain non-GAAP measures. We believe that these measures provide useful supplemental data that while not a substitute for GAAP measures, allow for greater transparency in the review of our financial and operational performance.
At this point, it is my pleasure to turn things over to Michael Roth.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Jerry and thank you for joining us this morning as we review our results for the first quarter. As usual I'll start out by covering the highlights of our performance and Frank will then provide additional details and I'll conclude with an update on our agencies to followed by a Q&A.
We're pleased to report another quarter of strong financial performance. The organic growth of net revenue was 6.4% in the quarter, that's on top of 3.6% a year ago and brings organic growth over the trailing 12 months to 6.2%. These continue to be outstanding results especially when compared to our peers. In the U.S. organic growth was 5.7% and international growth was 7.7%. We again grew organically in every region of the world, propelled by very broad participation across disciplines and client sectors. In our Integrated Agency Network segments we achieved 7.4% organic growth in the quarter, with outstanding performance at Mediabrands and FCB Health along with notable contributions from McCann Worldgroup, Deutsch and MullenLowe.
Our CMG segment grew 1.9% organically which was led by another very strong events in public relations at Weber Shandwick. Among client sectors globally we saw a strong growth across healthcare, industrials, consumer goods, financial services and retail. The total growth of our net revenue was 13% in the quarter. That reflects our strong organic increase as well as the revenue of Acxiom which is not yet included in our calculation of organic growth.
We continue to be pleased with Acxiom's performance, which is on track with our expectations. Total net revenue growth also reflects some year-over-year drag from the impact of currency changes and apart from Acxiom, the net disposition of certain small businesses.
Turning to adjusted EBITDA and to operating income. First quarter adjusted EBITDA was $103.6 million which excludes the restructuring charge of approximately $32 million that we mentioned to you we'd be taking during February's conference call. Our operating income was $50.2 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin as a percent of net revenue increased 270 basis points to 5.2% compared with 2.5% in Q1 2018.
First quarter diluted loss per share was $0.02 and was positive $0.11 as adjusted for the charge. The amortization of acquired intangibles and below EBITDA net losses from the disposition of small non-strategic agencies in the quarter. Adjusted EPS of $0.11 compares to $0.04 a year ago. During the quarter and as we announced in February, we increased our common share dividend by 12% to $0.235 per share, marking our seventh consecutive year of higher dividends. While Q1 is our smallest seasonal quarter, our year is off to a very solid start. The results we're reporting this morning continue to demonstrate the many strengths of our company, led by our client-centric integrated offerings and the quality of our people. It's another quarter of organic growth atop our industry, the position we have held now for some time.
As such this first quarter continues to underscore the quality of our talent and the successful evolution of our offerings amid significant change in the environment in which we operate. All of our people can take pride in these accomplishments. The great work they do every day on behalf of our clients, is what drives such winning results for clients and for our shareholders. With these results, we continue to be comfortable with the financial targets for the full year, that we recently shared with you. 2% to 3% organic growth and 40 basis points to 50 basis points of improvement to adjusted EBITA margin. As always we will update our outlook as the year progresses in our second quarter call.
On that note, it is my pleasure to turn things over to Frank for additional detail on our performance and I'll return with an update and highlights of our businesses.
Frank Mergenthaler -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, IPG and Chairman, CMG
Thank you, Michael and good morning. As a reminder I'll be referring to the slide presentation that accompanies our webcast. On Slide 2, you'll see a summary of our results. First quarter net revenue growth was 13% and organic growth was 6.4%. U.S. organic growth was 5.7% and international organic growth was 7.7%, with increases across all ranges -- in a range of 4.5% to 24% in the case of LatAm.
Q1 EBITDA $104 million as adjusted for the charge to mainly address certain account losses. That compares with $44 million a year ago. For the quarter, our adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.11 which excludes the charge I just mentioned. The amortization of acquired intangibles and $9 million of pre-tax losses below our operating income from the disposition of certain small non-strategic agencies.
Turning to Slide 3, you'll see our P&L for the quarter. I'll cover revenue and operating expenses in detail in the slides that follow. Here it's worth noting that interest expense increase as expected due to the financing we added in late September last year to buy Acxiom. Also note that net other expense includes the $9 million of disposition losses.
Turning to Q1 revenue on Slide 4. Net revenue was $2 billion, compared to Q1 2018, the impact of a change in exchange rates was a negative 2.8%, with the U.S. dollar stronger against every region. Net acquisitions added 9.4% which represents the addition of Acxiom, less other net dispositions over past -- over the past 12 months. Resulting organic revenue increase was 6.4%. At the bottom of the slide we break out our operating segments. As you can see our IAN segment was our principal growth driver in the quarter with 7.4% organic growth.
Underneath that terrific result was growth in all major disciplines including media, our creative-led integrated offerings and our healthcare specialists. Total growth in IAN was 15.5% which includes Acxiom. At our CMG segment, organic growth was 1.9% in the quarter, driven by another quarter standout growth by Weber Shandwick.
Moving on to Slide 5, revenue by region. In the U.S., first quarter organic growth was -- net revenue was 5.7%. Our growth was led by our IAN segment with standout performances by IPG Mediabrands, FCB, MullenLowe and Deutsch. In our CMG segment, marketing services specialist growth continued in Q1 at Weber Shandwick. Note that total U.S. growth was 20% which includes Acxiom. Our international markets -- in our international markets we had another strong quarter as well, with organic growth of 7.7%.
In the U.K., organic growth was 5.7% a very solid increase on top of 7.8% in Q1 2018. Leading client sectors included CPG financial services and retail. In Continental Europe, organic growth was 7.6%, this was highlighted by very strong growth in each of our national markets: Germany, France, Spain and Italy. In Asia Pac, our largest international region, net organic revenue growth was 4.5% in Q1. Among our largest national markets, growth was paced by Japan, India and China with a decrease in Australia. LatAm grew 23.8% organically in Q1. We had strong organic growth across the region led by Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. In our Other Markets group, organic growth was 5.2% led again by strong growth in Canada.
Moving on to Slide 6, in operating expenses which were again well-controlled in the quarter. Compared to net revenue growth of 13%, the net operating expenses increased only 9.9%, as adjusted for the charge this year in the amortization of acquired intangibles. Our ratio of total salaries and related expenses to revenue in our seasonally small first quarter was 70.9% (ph), an improvement of 410 basis points. This reflects leverage in the base IPG business, as well as benefit from the consolidation of Acxiom. Underneath that, we continue to drive efficiencies in our investment and base payroll and benefits which is our largest cost category in which leverage improved by 290 basis points.
We also saw solid operating leverage on our temporary labor, severance and other salaries and related, which was slightly offset by the increased expense of performance-based employee incentive compensation as a percent of net revenue. At quarter-end, total headcount was approximately 54,000, an increase of 7.8% from a year ago, with more than half of the increase due to the addition of Acxiom, and the balance due to the many growing areas of our portfolio.
Our office and other direct expense was 19.4%, the first quarter net revenue compared with 18.3% a year ago. With ops and other expense we levered our expense for occupancy by 60 basis points from a year ago. That was more than offset by the expense profile of Acxiom which is accretive to our margins overall while consolidating relatively more investment in data and technology.
Our SG&A expense increased as reported to 2.1% of net revenue which again reflects some increases in our expense for performance-based incentive compensation. Our expense for depreciation increased 2.5% of net revenue which is due to the consolidation of Acxiom this year, as was the case for our amortization expense which was $21.6 million in the quarter. Our restructuring charge is approximately $32 million which is toward the lower end of the $30 million to $40 million range we shared with you in February. The charge is mainly to address the headcount and real estate related to certain account loss toward the end of last year. These were principally U.S. costs and accordingly we expect to realize a reasonably short payback period in this action.
Turning to Slide 7, we present detail and adjustments to our reported first quarter results, in order to give you better transparency and a picture of comparable performance. This begins on the left-hand side with our reported results and steps through the adjusted EBITDA and our adjusted diluted EPS. Our D&A expense includes $21.6 million in the amortization of acquired intangibles and the restructuring charge of $31.8 million, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of $103.6 million.
Below operating expenses we had a loss in the quarter of $8.6 million in other expense related to disposition of some small non-strategic businesses. At the foot of the slide, you can see the after-tax impact per diluted share of each of these adjustments. Their total was $0.13 per diluted share which is a difference between the reported loss of $0.02 per diluted share and income of $0.11 as adjusted.
On Slide 8, we turn to Q1 cash flow. Cash used in operations was $94 million compared with the use of $730 million a year ago. As you know our operating cash flow is highly seasonal and can be volatile by quarter. We typically generate significant cash from working capital in the fourth quarter and used cash in the first quarter. During this year's first quarter, cash used in working capital was $166 million. That historical low cash use of Q1 was due to the timing of large collections and disbursements around last year-end and the first few business days of this year.
Investing activities used $131 million in the quarter for CapEx. Our financing activities provided $87 million net due to an increase in short-term borrowings, mainly utilizing our commercial paper program. We use $91 million for our common stock dividend. Our net decrease in cash for the quarter was $44 million.
Slide 9 is the current portion of our balance sheet. We ended the year with $631 million of cash equivalents. Under current liability it's worth calling to your attention the current portion of operating leases at $263 million which is new. This is our first reporting period under ASC 842 which is the new standard for lease accounting. Accordingly, we have recognized a right of use asset in the corresponding lease liability in our balance sheet.
The current portion of our lease liability is shown on this slide. Our long-term lease obligation as of March 31 is $1.2 billion, while our right of use of asset is $1.4 billion. We expect that the new lease accounting will not have any significant impact on our results of operations or cash flows.
Slide 10 depicts the maturities of our outstanding debt. The total debt at quarter-end at $3.9 billion in diversified terms and maturities going forward.
In summary on Slide 11, while Q1 is our smallest seasonal quarter we are pleased with the start of our year. Our teams continue to execute very well, our balance sheet continues to be a strong and meaningful source of value creation, all of which has us well positioned.
With that, I'll turn it back over to Michael.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Frank. As I mentioned at the outset, we're pleased with the results in the quarter. While the headline news may be our strong organic revenue growth, we also saw good new business performance, the onboarding of impressive new talent and very high levels of industry recognition. We invest in our people and always put our clients and agency brands first. Our results this quarter show that we've remained on the right track. Growth in the quarter came from a very broad range of both our existing and new clients, as well as a cross-section of our agencies.
It's fair to say that our top line performance during the quarter is in line with our expectations. It's also worth noting that the client losses that we saw in the back half of 2018 has yet to impact our results. While there is still macro uncertainty, we continue to believe that economic fundamentals are sound, especially in the U.S. where we once again delivered industry-leading performance.
As we noted before, we operate in a media landscape that evolves at a rapid pace. Media channels continue to fragment and clients face an increasingly complex consumer environment, and which data, which fuels the digital economy is central to most contemporary media offerings and marketing capabilities. To address today's marketplace, we acquired Acxiom adding a foundational world-class data asset. This future-facing step for IPG benefits our clients and shareholders alike, as we bring our ability to manage and leverage data at scale to market.
Acxiom enables us to develop deeper relationships in the marketplace among clients, consumers and media. As we previously stated we have notably been focused on leveraging Acxiom with our media assets initially. Going forward, we see Acxiom adding tremendous opportunity for our creative assets as well, allowing for personalized storytelling done globally and at scale for our clients.
Turning to our Integrated Agency Network or IAN reporting segment which includes Acxiom and Mediabrands as well as our creative networks. Mediabrands again led the quarter posting a very strong performance. Initiative was recognized as AdAge Comeback Agency of the Year and Ad Week's U.S. Media Agency of the Year, and continue to add new business in the quarter, including clients Nintendo and Keurig Dr Pepper. The agency's unique culture-driven reverse upfront continues to gain attention with marketers and the industry.
UM added Energizer and TGI Friday's to its roster, and was named as stand-out agency by AdAge, as well as the Best Place to Work in 2019. MAGNA continues to stay on top of ad trends releasing its latest predictions for the U.S. this month. The agency also appointed its first U.S. President. Now one of the Top Women in the media buying space.
McCann Worldgroup's are another solid performance starting the year strong with major industry accolades. You may have seen that just last week the Effie Index named McCann Worldgroup, the most creatively effective network in the world for the second year in a row. This follows another impressive Number One creatively effective network ranking on 2019 WARC Effective 100 list.
At the AdAge A-List and Creativity Awards, McCann was recognized among the Top 10 industry performers with its global Chief Strategy Officer, named Chief Strategy Officer of the year. The network also saw a senior leadership appointments globally. McCann Canada, MRM/McCann London named new CEOs and McCann Health welcomed a Global Chief Creative Officer. And McCann Worldgroup just -- has just been named ADT's creative and strategic agency of record. FCB saw a strong quarter with a number of new business wins in global markets.
The agency was also named to the Top 10 list of industry performers at the AdAge A-List awards. In FCB/Six, the network's Toronto-based unit was awarded Data/Analytics Agency of the Year. We have an exceptional group of healthcare agencies on the IPG and FCB Health continues to be a major driver of growth. Just recently FCB Health named the new Executive Creative Director in New York. MullenLowe continues to perform very well in new business, onboarding a number of significant accounts this quarter.
Notable wins including Grey Goose Vodka, Sennheiser Global Consumer Business and Mediahub's recent agency of record win, Fox Sports and Fox Entertainment. Mediahub was also recently named Media Agency of the Year by AdAge. R/GA under the leadership of its new global CEO was named a Magic Quadrant leader among global marketing agencies by Gartner and an Ad Age Agency to Watch. And the agency's Venture Studio announced it will be partnering with Kinship, the newly launched ventures tech and business innovation arm of Mars Petcare for the R/GA innovation exchange this year. The program will feature female-led international start ups, that are building consumer brands of the future.
Brooklyn-based Huge gained four prominent clients this quarter, realtor.com, Brooks Running, Value Retail and most recently Sinai Health. The agency was named a visionary among global marketing agencies on Gartner's Magic Quadrant. Our U.S. integrated independent agencies continue to round out our portfolio. They delivered a full suite of marketing services to their clients and can also combine with the rest of the IPG offerings on a collaborative open architecture solutions.
Highlights, within this group came from Deutsch, an agency that just won Reebok. The Martin Agency which just worked with initiatives to an open-architecture collaboration to bring in UPS globally at the start of the first quarter. The agency also expanded its relationship with Buffalo Wild Wings and launched a Cultural Impact Lab within its creative department. And its first-ever female CEO was just named Executive of the Year by AdAge. Carmichael Lynch and Carmichael Lynch Relate added Xcel Energy and Red Wing Shoes to the client roster. respectively. And Hill Holliday launched Hill Holiday Health, the agency's very own dedicated healthcare practice.
South Carolina-based EP and Company one of IPG's agencies to watch, continues the successful run of client growth and was named the stand-out agency by AdAge. At CMG our marketing services agencies saw a positive organic growth, Weber Shandwick and Golin continue to be standouts among PR agency networks. Weber Shandwick added influence responsibilities for Kellogg U.S. and PR agency of record for Buick and GMC. The firm's President was named Agency Professional of the Year by PR Week U.S., showing that IPG has the top women leader in the PR space.
The agency also announced the expansion of its technology and corporate expertise with the addition of new senior leaders in the U.S. West Region as well as the launch of Media Genius, a resource for deeper learning on the forces shaping today's tech-driven media landscape. This quarter, Golin launched the industry's first consumer experience PR Suite, CX PR, Marion customer care with public relations to drive sales and reputation. It was an exciting quarter for the Octagon's sports and entertainment network, as Rogers and Collins VIP services division Film Fashion and Octagon's celebrity consultancy First Call were both rebranded as ITB Worldwide. At Jack Morton, one of the world's largest experiential agencies, we saw new clients added this quarter, including Jameson Irish Whiskey and MillerCoors, and the appointment of a new Chief Creative Officer.
When we say, we are client-centric holding company, it means we support and invest in our agency brands, and put collaboration at our core. This focus has meant, we remain vital in new business, we drive high levels of industry recognition and we are able to attract and retain diverse talent who want to develop their careers with us. The best creative ideas come from strong agency brands. These kind of ideas or platforms that help our clients uncover new ways of doing business. Creativity also enables our integrated marketing experts to cross-campaigns that connect more deeply with people and help brands earn their way into people's lives. Ultimately, this means that our most creative people can actually build the new products and services that help clients drive business transformation.
The strength of our agencies was made clear two weeks ago, when IPG agencies dominated the AdAge A-List awards, with more agencies included in the evening, than any other holding company. This investment in people and brands also explains why LinkedIn recently ranked IPG the Number One holding company to work for within the ad sector. And why just a few weeks ago, the human rights campaign named IPG a Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality, marking our 10th year of receiving the latter distinction.
Looking ahead, new business activity remains sound and we're seeing all of our agencies invited in our range of opportunities. Of course, we also remain disciplined when it comes to managing costs. This is what has allowed us to make such great strides when it comes to enhancing the company's profitability over the long-term. The first quarter was seasonally our smallest quarter, and we have most of 2019 still ahead of us. But the tone of the business is solid as you've seen today.
Our client conversations are constructive with respect to their plans for brand investment and consumer engagement. These discussions reflect the value that we bring to the table, in helping clients navigate the complex media and consumer environment. The results that we're sharing today is indicative of a solid start to 2019. We believe that we remain well positioned to deliver the financial targets that we outlined early this year of 2% to 3% organic growth. Given the headwinds we'll be facing, as well as the fact we will be comping against industry-leading growth rates, targeting competitive organic growth performance speaks to the strength of our underlying offerings.
Along with this level of growth we continue to target adjusted EBITDA operating margin of 40 to 50 basis points compared to our 2018 result, excluding the impact of our charge in this quarter. This builds on our strong long-term record in this area. At the same time we'll continue to invest in the outstanding talent and emerging capabilities that are required to position us for the long-term.
Combined with a transformative opportunities of our enhanced stability to connect marketing with data, and our commitment to capital return, that means they remain significant potential for value creation and enhanced shareholder value. As always it's appropriate to thank our clients and our people who are the foundation of our success.
With that, I'll open it up for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Alexia Quadrani with J.P. Morgan.
Alexia Quadrani -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Thank you very much. I guess Michael looking at the impressive outperformance once again in the quarter, can you provide a bit more detail on I guess what were the drivers behind it specifically? I know you touched on the lot in your opening comments. You talked about the strength in Mediabrands and the health group for example, the verticals, so I'm trying to really more figure out how much is it ongoing healthy growth you're seeing in your underlying business versus may be how much was still a benefit or an additional benefit I should say from new business tailwinds?
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well there is nothing wrong with having new business tailwinds, OK? And certainly the fact that we came into the year with new business on the books and we've actually had a good first quarter in terms of new business that helps. And that's the solid sign of our tone. I think we said this now, we've outperformed now for like five years, something like that.
And I think it really goes to our strategy and our core competencies. We really -- the notion of open architecture the notion of having strong brands that we bring to the table to focus on the clients' needs. And we have the resources and talent to meet those needs. I think we're seeing that in our results, I've attended a number of these top-to-top meetings with the senior management, CEOs of our clients and we're sitting in a room with media, with FCB and McCann with Weber. We're all sitting in the same room focusing on clients' needs. I mean that is what clients want to see from us.
And if you look at our new business wins, you see that cross-collaboration of our agencies coming to life. And I think clients realize that we have the resources to meet their needs. And frankly if it's -- if the agency of record is not the agency that is bringing it to them, they can look to the rest of IPG to solve their solutions. And I strongly believe that the fact that we have the talent, we have a solid organization that is stable. We continue to outperform which is an indication that we continue to have a strong retention of our key people and we continue to invest. I think the Acxiom investment that we made is proving out. I mean a lot of the meetings that we're having include Acxiom sitting at the table.
And frankly we really even haven't rolled out the opportunities we see with Acxiom. As we said we're going to do that later in this year, so the integration of Acxiom is going along very nicely and it's evident in the new business and servicing our clients. So I think when you put it altogether and the fact that we still maintain those brands and clients like to be dealing with brands and we continue to invest it. We didn't reposition all of our assets, to do what we should be able to do just by bringing in the best of IPG and the tone reflects that.
Alexia Quadrani -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
And then just a follow-up if I may. If we look forward I know you don't like when I ask more short-term questions, but I'm going to sneak one in. We've heard some of the accounts seemed a bit slower to move the ones that have announced, they might be -- they're shifting agencies. They seem a bit slow to move and I noticed in your opening remarks you also mentioned that you didn't really feel a lot of the losses that you -- the few losses that you had in the back half of the year. You haven't felt them in Q1 yet. Should we assume that maybe some of those headline losses are more of a second half of the year headwind versus Q2?
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I thought you were going to ask right out, why you were 2% to 3% when you have such a strong first quarter.
Alexia Quadrani -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
That could be my next one.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay. Well look we're very transparent. We called out that we have the headwinds, I hate losing clients and we've lost a number of clients at the end of the year. And as I said, we're not going to see the impact of that starting in the second quarter, but on the second half of the year which is why the 2% to 3%. By the way 2% to 3% still is on the high end of our sector and that builds into the loss of those clients.
We do a bottoms-up for the full year when we put out that number. So the loss of those clients are reflected in our forecast and we're still forecasting numbers that embedded in the sector. So I think it goes to the confidence we have in our people and our agencies. And yeah, I mean that's why we've kept it at 2% to 3%. Now hopefully when we get to the second quarter we're going to take another hard look at that, and see how the new business wins are coming onboard, and how we're performing and we'll take another look at that number. But that's the reason we haven't adjusted to 2% to 3%, and I think it's a smart thing to do, given that we haven't yet seen the impact of those client losses.
Alexia Quadrani -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Thank you so much.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Alexia.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open, you may ask your question.
Benjamin Swinburne -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning. Michael I don't know if you're surprised or not when, Publicis bought Epsilon. I'm sure you had some reactions that you want to share on this call. But I was really hoping to get how you see the competitive -- competitive landscape shifting, as we see a lot of your competitors dive in big into sort of the broad data technology world in a way we haven't seen in the past? And when you guys announced Acxiom last year obviously it was a big deal for IPG. A lot of focus on it. And I'm just wondering if you could sort of update us on how you look at these assets? And how you think they compare to what your competitors are pointing together either through acquisitions like Epsilon or maybe through organic stuff like omni, because it seems like this is -- you've started a trend, I don't think is finished. So I love to hear your thoughts on that.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Look, I mean when we bought Acxiom, frankly the good news is when we bought Acxiom we had choices right? There were other assets out there and we chose the asset that we felt, best provided us from a cultural fit, as well as the capabilities that we see that we need. And so we continue to believe that we were fortunate to be able to pick up Acxiom. And yeah, I think we've been looking at data as a critical piece of the future-facing IPG for a number of years now. And what's great about Acxiom for us is that we were already working with Acxiom. So the culture fit was clear to us.
We looked at the issue of integration. Unfortunately in our industry, integration is not exactly the strongest suite as proved by some of the transactions that are out there. So what we liked about Acxiom is the fact that we believe and it's working out that way, that the integration of Acxiom with us is going to be smooth -- look, it's not without bumps, but it's smooth because we know them they fit culturally, we're not duplicating assets within IPG that we have to worry about, as some of these other transactions may indicate. They have the core competencies that we were looking for. We view data management as a critical piece of the future part of our business, and Acxiom is the leader in data management.
We felt that privacy and GDPR was a critical component and Acxiom is rated 5-star at Forrester, the other rep offerings that are out there are not. The issue of LiveRamp was one of the questions and we felt that LiveRamp raised some potential issues on conflict, and we saw what we did was -- we have a choice, we have a long-term agreement with LiveRamp which we continue to use. But if our clients want to use another offering, we have -- we're comfortable doing that and plugging it in, where some of these other transactions it's part of their core competencies, so I think there is an inherent issue of conflict going forward. And the key there, a lot of these transactions is a smooth integration and we believe that Acxiom for us gives us a competitive advantage on the integration, and the core offerings that they have going forward.
And frankly time will tell. We're very comfortable with our competitive position, clearly in the integrated offering, and our results reflect this. And when you add the Acxiom capabilities to best-in-class offerings that we have, we're very comfortable with our competitive positioning, even with the transactions that are out there.
Benjamin Swinburne -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Just a follow-up, maybe a little more specifically. Are you now bringing Acxiom folks into pitches with their broader organization? And you mentioned in your prepared remarks creative to sort of not an obvious one for this business. Is that something that you're already starting to weave into the pitch activity in new business? Or is that further down the line? Just any specifics on the integration would be helpful.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Look we said at the outset that we don't -- the worst thing you can do, because we feel the opportunities with Acxiom is so great, is to inundate them with opportunities and basically really confuse and stretch the people and the integration. So we've chosen intentionally to start on the media side. And as I indicated in my remarks, we don't -- it's not until the latter part of this year that the new products that we were looking at, that Acxiom and our media offerings are looking at, are not going to be rolled out.
So yes, we do believe that Creative and our other offerings, even PR have a tremendous opportunity using the capabilities of Acxiom. But we haven't really rolled it out, but that doesn't mean we haven't had our clients meet with Acxiom. So what we are doing, in fact, if you look at some of the new wins that we had, Acxiom had a seat at the table. And I wouldn't tell you that it was a critical piece -- although we did win some big media businesses where Acxiom arguably had a critical piece in the win. But as far as the integration of Acxiom with our other agencies, the mere fact that they're sitting at the table and it's an interesting offering that clients are really interested in learning about, helped us in the wins. But I'm not going to tell you that, that was the critical linchpin in the win, but let's face it when you sit at the table and you have the creative capability we have. We have the PR capability, we have the experiential sports and now we have data capability, all sitting in the room, addressing the questions of our clients. It's the Holy Grail of our business, so which is why we're so excited about it.
Benjamin Swinburne -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Dan Salmon with BMO Capital Markets. You may ask your question.
Daniel Salmon -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Michael I'm going to ask about M&A, a little bit too. But the one I'm interested in is Accenture and Droga. I'd love to hear your...
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That question was going to come up either. Yeah.
Daniel Salmon -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
I figured you're prepared for it, but just your latest thoughts on where, not just Accenture but the traditional consultants sit in terms of their ambitions of continuing to come in to the agency and marketing services where it is a business services model, it's not a piece of technology or anything like that. But love to hear your thoughts on that. And then just to circle back on the sort of short-term organic questions, I just want to confirm, I think you did you say in your prepared results the first quarter organic growth was in line with your expectations. I know you guys don't guide quarterly but just maybe to reiterate that.
And one last one for Frank. Do you look with the good performance of the company that leverages headed in all the right directions that it should be, but your updated thoughts on the pathway for the balance sheet and the potential restart of share repurchases, I think that's something investors are interested to hear about too. Thanks.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
All of that Dan, OK. First of all, yes it's in line. I mean it's hard to forecast the 6% organic growth but we knew the first quarter was going to be solid. I'd tell you, if could tell you, we forecast it to be 6%. But it is consistent with our roll-up of all of our agencies, so that part of it, is true. But the consultants are out there and again I'll say we just in our business reviews and actually we're doing our talent reviews right now. We haven't seen a lot of RFPs where we're competing with Accenture. Now that doesn't mean we're not competing with them. They're already at our clients, which is the hidden competition that's there.
And sometimes there's businesses that they just give to the consultants that they're not giving to us. And that's why part of our business strategy, for example in Huge, in R/GA and some of our other agencies we have business transformation as an expertise that we can bring into our clients itself. In fact, this morning we're going to be meeting with one of our top clients where R/GA has put forth their business transformation case study for them, that they're very excited about. And clearly that's the area that we compete with the consultants. And then it proves, that we can compete with them very well.
So yeah, they're a force, we've been competing with them now for a while now, it's not news, so the fact that we continue to outperform is an indication that when we go up against them, we do fairly well. But it's those pitches that we don't really get to see, that I think when you hear them talking about their growth in their businesses that's there. And we're trying to get at that, by expanding our business transformation expertise within our agencies. The fact that they acquired Droga, look we compete with the Accenture, we compete with Droga, OK?
Daniel Salmon -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Right.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That in fact, the win that McCann just had at ADT, Droga was one of the competitors that they won. I told you guys I get that in. Okay. So we're going to compete with them. Now one of the issues of these consulting firms is they are siloed, they make our silos look like a cakewalk. And the ability for an Accenture to integrate Droga is going to be interesting to watch. Frankly Droga was with another organization before that, and I don't think there was a lot of integration going on there. So this will be -- they're a formidable agency and we will continue to compete against them, and we'll continue to compete against Accenture.
But the difference is, we have the capabilities. And now with the data and with the business transformation consultants that we have in-house, I think we're more formidable for them now. And that's our strategy on how we're going to deal with them. It's part of the business, and what's interesting is, well everything you're seeing happening there is kind of copying our game plan. So I guess that's an indication that, what we're doing is going pretty well.
Our balance sheet, I mean we committed to the rating agencies, that we're going to be out in the market. We're making progress on those numbers. And as soon as we feel comfortable with the rating agencies, we'll return to buying back shares. In the meantime we increased our dividend, we understand the importance of buybacks to total shareholder return. We've returned $4 billion to shareholders including dividends and buybacks and that's part of our game plan moving forward. Whether it's going to be ex-date (ph) or another, I can't give you an answer to that, but it is on our game plan to get back into the market with those options.
Daniel Salmon -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Thank you, Michael.
Frank Mergenthaler -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, IPG and Chairman, CMG
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Tim Nollen with Macquarie Capital. Your line is open, you may ask your question.
Timothy Nollen -- Macquarie Capital -- Analyst
Thanks, very much. I wanted to ask about Acxiom, coming back to this again. Could you discuss, is this still, is more about third-party or about first-party data for --? I'm thinking of it more it's more. Just a question, (technical difficulty) made some comments this week about a possible slowdown in targeted advertising to counter it in the second half of this year. I'm quite surprised to hear that especially talking about GDPR for them. But it seemed to be point into third-party data and regulation around that, as being the issue for them. I just wonder if you could maybe comment on, if you're seeing anything there -- sort of what act does pull you in that regard? If it's more the first-part of the data that gives you an advantage.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
By the way, I'm sorry, your questions, I didn't get all your questions they were kind of garbled. I'll try to guess what you said. Look what we looked at Acxiom, they have a first-party data management business that's 70% of their business, OK? And that's a core business that we like, that's a core business, that's going to grow. And if you look at the reach of that business and the client base that they have, they do 50 of the Top 100 companies, so that is a key driver in acquiring Acxiom. Third-party data is always going to be an issue and there are plenty of outlets for third-party data and obviously Acxiom has capabilities in all of those areas. But as I said before, that doesn't mean we're wedded to one particular source of that and we continue to have used other third-party data. But I think it's the core competency of Acxiom in terms of first-party data and managing that data is a critical reason for the transaction. And the use of third-party data is inherent in our business and we'll continue to be a key part of it and Acxiom will play an important role of it.
So I think all of that is true. And on the GDPR we're just beginning to see that happening in the United States. And as you know we're all pushing for a uniform legislation. What a nightmare it would be, if we have a state-by-state GDPR. But the fact that Acxiom is the recognized leader in this and we have experienced with it, is another core competency that Acxiom brings to the table, that we will certainly leverage as we move forward.
Timothy Nollen -- Macquarie Capital -- Analyst
Yeah, that answered it. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jason Bazinet with Citi. Your line is open, you may ask your question.
Jason Bazinet -- Citigroup -- Analyst
I just had one question around sort of your comments about industry-leading growth and that being driven in part by your open architecture. I guess my question is, if everyone is sort of following your lead on the data side with Epsilon and Merkle which parallels when you took with Acxiom. How would you characterize where the industry is in terms of a rein or assets more effectively to compete with IPG? Do you see the movement on that front? Or do you still feel like you're ahead of the pack? Thanks.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I will tell you that, five years ago, all the holding companies were similar, right? And it was appropriate to look at when one holding company perform one way, you would expect the other holding companies to do the same. I think right now you're actually seeing a disparity in the go-to-market strategies in the assets within the holding company for the first time. And Acxiom as part of our portfolio is one of the drivers that distinguishes us from our competitors. The fact that, they're out there Merkle actually is the big -- Merkle was a transaction that occurred before Acxiom. We did look at Merkle, I'll tell you that, and it's a good asset. But the fact that Dempster's head Merkle now for a while, and we've been competing against them, or actually we're competing against them before we had Acxiom and we did, OK.
So with Acxiom, we're pretty confident that we continue to do well from a competitive set. What happens with Epsilon and Publicis, this isn't an easy a thing to do integrate. And I think the history of integration there hasn't been exactly stellar. So we'll deal with them in the marketplace and I think certainly it's an attempt by them to be more in line with our sales and others in our industry. So yes, capabilities when you're successful everyone wants to have similar capabilities. So, yes, I think the answer is there is a convergence but we have a good headstart. And even when we're competing head-to-head, I think our results indicated that our assets are better than the others.
Jason Bazinet -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Thanks. Can I just ask one follow-up? If I think about that sort of the world of data, it seems like what we're talking about and maybe I'm wrong, but with Merkle and Acxiom and Epsilon is sort of a pretty narrow slice of data capabilities, meaning that's the raw data, but there is a ton of other capabilities you need on top of that. But are there other sort of pieces of the data puzzle that you or others in the industry need to crack code on? Or is it really just a function of once we have the raw sort of inputs, the IPG sort of knows what to do with it.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
My guess would be, now that you see this transaction in these data companies, that there'll be start-ups, that are focusing on holes within those assets. And then you'll see acquisitions going on within that space. So there is always going to be a bigger boat or a new offering that we will be opportunistic in the marketplace. Right now, these are the place that are out there and we're very happy with our positioning in that market. But we are -- we do believe that there'll be other offerings out there, as the market evolves. So yeah, I mean if you look at our industry right now, five years ago it was a totally different environment. So the reason we bought Acxiom is because five years from now, we want to still be relevant and competitive.
Jason Bazinet -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Yeah. Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Michael Nathanson with MoffettNathanson. Your line is open, you may ask your question.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Michael?
Michael Nathanson -- MoffettNathanson -- Analyst
Hey, I have one for -- can you hear me?
Yeah, yes.
Oh, cool. Thanks. So one for Michael, and one for Frank. So for Michael one of the keys to IPG's growth has been healthcare. It's been pretty impressive. So I know you call it FCB Health this quarter, but when you step back the past year or two what is driving that growth, right? Is it a capability? Is it client wins, special sauce you have in healthcare? Because it's truly fascinating the company in the space that can be with?
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I know it's a fair question. Actually 26% of this is in healthcare. Yeah, and by the way McCann Health is a global healthcare provider, I didn't mean to exclude them. I said we have healthcare assets within IPG and McCann Health is certainly a key part of that. And yeah, I think that's where the action is right now. Frankly, if you look at where a lot of the media buys are right now, a lot of the media spend is in the healthcare side of the business.
What we do, what always impresses me about our healthcare and offerings is the depth of our expertise in terms of its actually experts. And it goes to the formal (ph) side of the business and capabilities by drugs. And we have the ability to field teams that know that specific disease. And we have doctors and we have experts within it, communicating with the doctors themselves in terms of how you -- how these particular drugs are used and when is it appropriate. So the depth of our expertise within IPG and healthcare is just amazing.
And like I said, and when you use open architecture we can actually pick the right agency by disease. So one of the top-to-tops that I was sitting at, was a healthcare client. And we had FCB Health and we had McCann Health sitting in the room because each of them have a different expertise, that the clients want to tap into. I mean that's the most powerful offering you can have. So I think it's not by accident that we're seeing growth, because candidly we have that kind of capabilities. And it's the creative part of it, it's the data part of it. We have unique data with respect to healthcare and we have all these tools and resources that is just amazing. And when you see it come to life in these meetings with the clients, you feel good and you understand why not only is it 26% of our business, it's growing double digit. So that's a pretty good combination to have in this environment.
Now that said, I remember when healthcare was not growing double digit, when a lot of the products were coming off of patent and the generics were there. So right now there is a healthy pipeline of new drugs and we're very competitive force in that marketplace. And I like our positioning in it for sure.
Michael Nathanson -- MoffettNathanson -- Analyst
Okay. And then can I just ask Frank one math one. I can't believe we made it this far. We got questions this morning on organic growth in Acxiom, because I know there is a divestment number in the acquisition number. But when you look at the growth from last year, it looks like it slowed down a lot this quarter. So can you help us understand the actual organic growth of Acxiom this quarter?
Frank Mergenthaler -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, IPG and Chairman, CMG
Michael, we don't disclose it. It's growing consistent with our expectations. The business is healthy, so I don't know what math you're doing, but we're not going to get into talking on the call about things that are not in the public disclosure.
Michael Nathanson -- MoffettNathanson -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks.
Frank Mergenthaler -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, IPG and Chairman, CMG
You're welcome.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from David Joyce with Evercore ISI. Your line is open, you may ask your question.
David Joyce -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst
Thank you. Just a follow-up on the Acxiom new discussion. When you are meeting with clients and talking about data privacy concerns, what's the current status there? I know we're still waiting for legislation, but are there concerns that's you have competitors that may be using the service as well or might be leaving? If you could just talk about those puts and takes. Thanks.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I can't talk about our competitors, I can tell you our capabilities. We've been through it in Europe, we came to it very well. We didn't see any hiccups on GDPR. We saw actually there were more opt-ins than opt-outs, so everything was handled pretty smoothly, and that gives us a high level of comfort, that when it get launched in the United States, our capabilities are going to stand out again.
And frankly, that's why Forrester has us rated as high. Look the key to this is trust and it's very important when clients turn over their data or work with their data, that they do with an organization that has that kind of reputation of trust and has the experience. And that's what we liked about Acxiom. The longevity of the relationship with the clients is amazing. Their view of the client surveys on their capabilities have been very impressive. And even when we did our due diligence on buying Acxiom, they were onboarding a new client and the feedback we got from that particular client on onboarding versus where they were was pretty impressive. So I'm very comfortable that whatever comes out in GDPR in the U.S. we have the assets that will be very competitive and solve our clients' needs.
Alright. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. At this time I'll turn the call back over to Michael for a final thoughts.
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I thank you all for your participation. As I said, this is the first quarter, it's better to start the first quarter with these results than other results. And I look forward to talking to you with our second quarter results. Thank you for your support.
Operator
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect at this time.
Duration: 59 minutes
Call participants:
Jerry Leshne -- Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Michael I. Roth -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Frank Mergenthaler -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, IPG and Chairman, CMG
Alexia Quadrani -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Benjamin Swinburne -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Daniel Salmon -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Timothy Nollen -- Macquarie Capital -- Analyst
Jason Bazinet -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Michael Nathanson -- MoffettNathanson -- Analyst
David Joyce -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst
Transcript powered by AlphaStreet
This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.
