Cost cuts enhance Diebold’s appeal

Article Excerpt

DIEBOLD INC. $48 (New York symbol DBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 65.5 million; Market cap: $3.1 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) earned $0.41 a share (total $27.1 million) from continuing operations in the three months ended December 31, 2006. If you disregard restructuring charges and writedowns, the company would have earned $0.77 a share. That’s a big improvement over the $0.15 a share ($10.4 million) Diebold earned in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 1.8%, to $825.4 million from $810.6 million. So far, Diebold has cut $12 million from its annual expenses, and feels it can find an additional $23 million in savings in 2007. It aims to cut its annual costs by $100 million by the end of 2008. The company will use some of these savings to buy back 4% of its stock. It also raised the quarterly dividend 9.3%, from $0.215 a share to $0.235. The new annual rate of $0.94 yields 2.0%. Sales of ATMs…