VeriFone Holdings Inc. does not expect to meet its self-imposed deadline of mid-January to file its delayed earnings reports for its fiscal year that ended Oct. 31.
The terminal maker said last month that it would restate its earnings for the first three quarters of fiscal 2007, and delayed the release of its fourth-quarter and annual report for the year, due to an accounting error.
The company said then that it expected to fill all its financial reports this month, but pushed out this schedule by up to two months in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
VeriFone "does not expect that it will complete this process and make the required filings prior to March 2008," the filing said.
Analysts had said earlier that the San Jose company's plan to revise its earnings reports by this month was ambitious.
VeriFone has said that it overstated its inventory and understated its costs of goods for the three quarters in question, and that updating its earnings could trim its pretax income by as much as $29.7 million.
The accounting issues have dragged down its stock price and prompted several groups of shareholders to file lawsuits accusing VeriFone of filing misleading earnings statements and claiming that the company failed to follow generally accepted accounting principles.
VeriFone shares were trading at $20.87 Wednesday morning, down 10.24% from Monday's closing price; its stock fell nearly 50% when it announced the restatement, to about $25, and has hovered in the low-to-mid $20 range since then.
