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An unexpectedly high number of cash withdrawals made with payroll cards at its Allpoint ATMs helped Cardtronics Inc. to report its second consecutive quarterly profit, company executives announced yesterday during a conference call with analysts. The ATM independent sales organization reported net income of $6.4 million for the third quarter ended Sept. 30; Cardtronics reported a $4.4 million loss for the same period last year. It was the second consecutive quarterly profit for the Houston-based company, which reported second quarter net income of $2.6 million. Previously, the company's last profit was for the fourth quarter of 2006. Company officials attributed the positive results to more holders of payroll cards withdrawing cash from Allpoint ATMs. Cardtronics owns Bethesda, Md.-based Allpoint, which operates 35,000 surcharge-free ATMs in the United States. "Before companies began paying employees with payroll cards, we never got their business," Rick Updyke, Cardtronics' president of global development, said during the conference call. "They would go to a check-cashing service with their paper checks." During the third quarter, Cardtronics reported 63.6 million cash withdrawals, up 8% from 59.1 million during the same three-month period last year. J. Christopher Brewster, Cardtronics chief financial officer, says he was surprised by the boost from payroll card use. "Payroll cards could account for more than half of our transactions," he says. Cardtronics reported 99.7 million transactions at its 32,995 ATMs in the U. S., United Kingdom, Mexico and Puerto Rico. That compared with 91.9 million transactions at 33,106 ATMs a year ago. Cardtronics' third-quarter revenues increased by 1%, to $128.6 million from $127.3 million.
