IMGCAP(1)]
Citing slumping sales to the retail industry, NCR Corp. today reported a net loss of $15 million for the first quarter ended March 30. The company reported net income of $48 million during the same period last year. Revenue fell 14.4%, to $1.01 billion from $1.18 billion last year. The company said it expects revenue to be down 10% to 15% for all of 2009. NCR, a leading ATM maker, also supplies point-of-sale and self check out equipment to retailers, but company executives said during a conference call this morning that many merchants have postponed accepting orders because of the economy. Sales to retailers account for roughly 40% of NCR's annual sales. The economy also is affecting ATM sales. "ATM orders were light in Q1, but expected, particularly given year-on-year comparisons to our best quarter ever, which was Q1 2008," Bill Nuti, NCR chairman and CEO, said during the call. NCR's latest push has been envelope-free, or intelligent-deposit, ATMs. Though some national banks, including Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., continue to buy and deploy such machines, regional banks are not, Nuti says. "Capital investment by banks is relatively solid with respect to NCR's solutions," Nuti says. "This is predominately true of large banks that are continuing to roll out deposit-automation capability. National and regional banks, depending on their exposure to bad assets, are being a bit more cautious. Mid-size banks are not standing still and there are active pilots in place, but purchase decisions are being made more slowly." Nuti, however, is optimistic about future ATM sales. "As the financial and credit markets begin to recover, our opportunities should improve," he said. But analyst Gil Luria of Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles downgraded NCR's stock to "hold" from a "strong buy." "We believe that once NCR's markets recover, ... it may return to success," Luria wrote in an analyst report. NCR is based in Dayton, Ohio.
