Topic: Growth Stocks

NCR CORP. $11 – New York symbol NCR

NCR CORP. $11 (New York symbol NCR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 159.2 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; No dividends paid; WSSF Rating: Average) has a broader product line than Diebold, and gets just a third of its revenue from making and servicing ATMs. The rest comes from selling checkout scanners, cash registers and self-serve kiosks.

NCR’s revenue rose slightly, from $6.0 billion in 2004 to $6.1 billion in 2006. Revenue fell to $5.0 billion in 2007, after NCR spun off Teradata Corp., but rose to $5.3 billion in 2008. Despite the slow sales growth, the company’s earnings rose from $0.89 a share (or a total of $171 million) in 2004 to $2.13 a share (or $389 million) in 2006. Earnings fell to $1.39 a share (or $254 million) in 2007, but rose to $1.61 a share (or $271 million) in 2008.

Like Diebold, most of NCR’s earnings gains came from lower costs, mainly because it outsourced much of its ATM production to other companies. It’s also cutting 10% of its workforce. The layoffs should save it $250 million a year by the end of 2011.

Deal expands DVD kiosks by 52%

NCR is investing some of these savings in new growth areas. For example, it recently paid an undisclosed sum for DVDPlay, which operates 1,300 kiosks in the U.S. and Canada. These kiosks let customers use a credit or debit card to rent movies.

The company already operates DVD kiosks under an alliance with video-store operator Blockbuster Inc. (New York symbol BBI). NCR plans to rename the DVDPlay kiosks as “Blockbuster Express” machines. The purchase will expand NCR’s DVD-rental business to over 3,800 machines by the end of 2009.

The cost savings also helped NCR repay $300 million of notes. Its long-term debt is now just $11 million. It holds cash of $419 million, or $2.63 a share.

The stock has rebounded strongly from its March 2009 low of $6.60. It trades at a high 22.0 times NCR’s forecast 2009 earnings of $0.50 a share. However, its 2010 earnings should reach $0.79 a share, which gives NCR a more reasonable p/e ratio of 13.9.

NCR is a buy.

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