New focus cuts Diebold’s risk

Article Excerpt

DIEBOLD INC. $39 (New York symbol DBD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.6 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.diebold.com) is a leading maker of automated teller machines. It also makes safes, vaults and building-security systems. The company gets 55% of its revenue from outside North America. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Diebold’s revenue rose 8.6% to $688.3 million from $633.5 million a year earlier. If you exclude the negative impact of currency exchange rates, revenue rose 12.2%. That’s mainly because the company completed two large orders for election and lottery machines in Brazil. Diebold is shifting toward services and software, which give it recurring revenue and cut its reliance on ATM sales. Services and software accounted for 56% of its first quarter revenue. Earnings improved to $9.8 million, or $0.15 a share, from a loss of $13.4 million, or $0.21 a share, a year earlier. Without costs…