Bank technology stocks soared last week on upbeat repeat fourth-quarter earnings reports.
International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp. both reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, and some technology firms that do a significant amount of business with banks also reported profits that met or exceeded analysts' expectations.
Diebold Inc., the Canton, Ohio-based automated teller machine maker, reported fourth-quarter net income of $21.5 million, or 71 cents per share, a 20% rise from the year-earlier period. Wall Street analysts were expecting Diebold to earn 72 cents a share in the quarter, according to First Call Corp.
Revenues were $243.5 million, an 18% increase from the year-earlier period.
Jack Henry & Associates, a developer of software for community banks, reported earnings of $2.8 million, or 22 cents per share, for its second quarter of fiscal 1996. Net income for the three-month period ended Dec. 31 rose 29% from the year-earlier quarter, company officials said. Earnings per share were one penny ahead of a consensus of analyst forecasts tracked by First Call.
Revenues at the Monett, Mo., firm grew at an even faster pace. Sales topped $16.5 million for the latest quarter, a 45% rise from the year- earlier period.
Jack Henry officials said all the company's business units were profitable in the quarter, with the exception of its Bankvision international banking systems unit, which lost $188,000.
Fair, Isaac & Co., the systems and consulting firm specializing in credit scoring, reported quarterly net income of $3.52 million, or 28 cents per share, for its first quarter of fiscal 1996. Net income grew by 25% over the year-earlier quarter, officials said. Earnings per share were in line with analyst estimates.
Officials at the San Rafael, Calif.-based firm said revenues rose 27% from the year-earlier period, to $32.6 million.
President and chief executive officer Larry Rosenberger said the results were "consistent with our expectations for fiscal 1996. While the credit scoring and account management services offered through the major credit bureaus and bank card processors turned in yet another fine quarter, I'm especially pleased by the exceptionally strong growth in revenues from our fixed-price credit application screening and account management products."
Moneygram Payments Systems Inc., a unit of First Data Corp., filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of up to 27.1 million shares of common stock priced between $15 and $17 per share. The offering will be managed by Lehman Brothers.
As part of an agreement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission in order to merge with First Financial Management Corp. last year, First Data agreed to manage its Moneygram consumer electronic payments separate from First Financial's Western Union business.
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. announced Wednesday it had won an outsourcing agreement with GATX Capital Corp. to manage the equipment financing firm's migration to client/server systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.
