DIEBOLD INC. $36 (New York symbol DBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.diebold.com) is a leading maker of automated teller machines. It also makes safes, vaults and building-security systems.
Thanks to a major cost-cutting plan, Diebold’s earnings rose 27.2%, to $1.73 a share in 2014 from $1.36 in 2013. Revenue rose 6.8%, to $3.05 billion from $2.86 billion.
Diebold gets 55% of its revenue from outside of North America, so the high U.S. dollar will probably cause its revenue to fall about 5% in 2015.
However, savings from the restructuring should increase its earnings to $1.90 a share. The stock trades at 18.9 times that forecast. That’s an acceptable multiple, particularly as Diebold continues to expand its software and services operations, which cut its reliance on ATM sales.
Diebold is a buy.