Most bank technology stocks rebounded last week as the first round of quarterly earnings reports generally met or exceeded Wall Street expectations.
Investors closely watched the flood of first-quarter results that began coming in last week - especially in the recently volatile technology sector.
International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft Corp. reported better-than-expected earnings for the first three months of 1996, but IBM's shares slid after some Wall Street analysts reduced their full-year earnings forecasts, noting challenges for the computer giant in the coming quarters.
Among financial systems firms reporting quarterly results, Fair Isaac & Co. said earnings for its fiscal second quarter totaled $4.4 million, or 34 cents per share, compared to $2.9 million, or 23 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
That bettered analysts' consensus that the credit-scoring software and consulting firm would earn 29 cents per share in the quarter, according to First Call Corp.
Fair Isaac's revenues for the first three months of 1996 were $35.3 million, compared to $26.4 million in the corresponding quarter last year, officials said.
Executives at the San Rafael, Calif.-based company said quarterly revenues were helped by growth in fixed-price credit application screening products and that the operating margin had been unusually high. The trend was unlikely to continue because of spending planned to support growth.
Another West Coast banking software company, CFI Proservices Inc., said its revenues had risen 50% in the first quarter, also exceeding analysts' expectations.
Net income at Portland, Ore.-based CFI totaled $869,000, or 18 cents per share, compared to first-quarter 1995 earnings of $220,000, or 5 cents per share. Analysts had forecast 14 cents per share, according to First Call.
"CFI's strong first quarter signals that we are on track with our market strategy," said Matt Chapman, chairman and chief executive. "As a result of recent acquisitions, CFI now has one or more major software solutions in over 5,000 financial institutions, making us the largest provider of PC- based banking software in the U.S."
Diebold Inc. said its first-quarter net income reached $18 million, or 39 cents per share, compared to earnings of $15.2 million, or 33 cents per share, in the corresponding quarter of 1995. Profits were in line with analysts' forecasts, First Call said.
Officials at the Canton, Ohio-based maker of automated teller machines said revenues for the first quarter totaled $215.9 million, a 10% increase from the year-earlier period.
"The outstanding results for the first quarter are a tribute to the success of our strategies to expand our business globally and to exploit our capabilities in systems integration," said Robert W. Mahoney, Diebold's chairman and chief executive.
