NCR earnings jump 41 percent

The company boosted revenue expectations for 2008.

NCR, which also makes checkout scanners for the retail stores and other self-service technology, said it earned $48 million, or 28 cents a share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $34 million, or 19 cents a share, for the same period in 2007.

NCR reported revenue rose 19 percent to $1.18 billion in the quarter, compared with $992 million in 2007.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $1.06 billion.

Excluding the results of Teradata Corp. and charges, NCR would have earned $49 million, or 28 cents per share, for the quarter compared with a loss of $9 million, or 5 cents loss a share, in 2007. NCR spun off Teradata, which makes data warehousing software, Oct. 1.

NCR increased its outlook for 2008 revenue growth from continuing operations from a range of 3 percent to 5 percent to a range of 5 percent to 7 percent.

The 19 percent growth in sales eclipsed the 13 percent growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2007 and was the largest growth rate since at least 1997, the year after NCR was spun off by AT&T. The comparisons did not include the performance of Teradata.

NCR shares rose 27 cents, more than 1 percent, to $25.50 in Wednesday trading. Since the spinoff of Teradata, NCR has traded between $19.25 and $29.39.

NCR said its revenue for the first quarter increased by 15 percent in the Americas region, driven primarily by sales growth to banks and retailers. Revenue increased 30 percent in the Europe-Middle East-Africa region, and 7 percent in the Asia-Pacific-Japan region.