Diebold Inc. raised its full-year profit outlook late Tuesday and said it has caught up on its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The North Canton, Ohio, automated teller machine company said it now expects to earn $1.52 to $1.62 a share, versus the range of $1.37 to $1.47 it projected in August when it reported its second-quarter earnings.
"The significant progress we've made in our cost-reduction initiatives has resulted in some of our anticipated savings coming in earlier than planned," Thomas Swidarski, its president and chief executive, said in a press release.
Diebold also said that it has filed earnings reports for the second, third, and fourth quarters of last year and the first and second quarters of this year, as well as a 2007 full-year report. It said it expects to report third-quarter earnings on a regular schedule.
The filings completed a restatement of earnings going back to 2003. Diebold began restating its results after an SEC investigation of its accounting practices that began in June of last year.
The company stressed Tuesday that both the SEC and the Justice Department are conducting investigations that still could affect its financial statements.
The SEC began its investigation after taking issue with an accounting method that booked revenue for some sales before the products were shipped. Diebold said in October of last year that it was ending that practice.
Gil B. Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, praising Diebold's progress in a research note published Wednesday.
"We believe Diebold will grow earnings at an impressive rate, even in a tough environment, as it continues to cut costs and begins to buy back shares in November," he wrote.
In catching up on its SEC filings, Diebold has reached "an important milestone," he wrote, and to its credit, "there were no surprises in the filings."
