Deluxe Corp. posted second-quarter earnings that far exceeded analyst expectations, as a result of stronger-than-anticipated revenue from all its business lines.
On Thursday the Shoreview, Minn., company reported net income of $36 million, or 69 cents a share, beating the average Wall Street estimate by 11 cents. It reported a loss of $2.4 million, or 5 cents a share, for the same quarter last year, because of a pretax impairment of $44.7 million from an abandoned software project.
Revenue fell less than 1% from a year earlier, to $399.9 million, because of the sale of its industrial packaging business.
Financial services revenue rose 0.5%, to $117.9 million, and direct checks revenue fell 1%, to $51.9 million.
Lee Schram, Deluxe's chief executive, said in a press release that the results from the direct check business were a positive sign, given the ongoing slump in check use. "Our personal check businesses were encouragingly flat year over year."
Deluxe has been cutting costs and increasing its focus on small-business services to adjust to slowing demand for checks.
"We are well on our way, executing against our transformational plan," Mr. Schram said. "We still have a lot of work to do, but our objective is to continue to execute each day while delivering on our improved commitments."
