NCR Corporation
NCR
stock gained 4.3% during Tuesday’s extended trading session after the company reported better-than-expected results for first-quarter 2021. The company’s first-quarter non-GAAP earnings of 51 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 47 cents. Moreover, the reported figure soared 65% year over year on higher revenues and cost reductions.
The company’s revenues of $1.54 billion topped the consensus mark marginally. The top-line figure also increased 3% year over year on a reported basis mainly driven by solid growth across the company’s retail and hospitality segments, partially offset by softness in the banking division.
Quarter Details
Banking revenues edged down 1% year over year to $756 million, primarily due to lower hardware sales, muted by higher software and services revenues to an extent.
NCR Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
NCR Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart
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NCR Corporation Quote
Retail revenues increased 13% to $532 million, chiefly on growth in point-of-sale and self-checkout revenues, as well as higher services revenues.
Hospitality revenues grew 6% to $179 million, primarily driven by an increase in point-of-sale revenues, as well as elevated services revenues.
The company’s Digital Banking Solution witnessed solid momentum. Digital banking registered users climbed 13% year on year.
Margins
Non-GAAP gross profit of $425 million was up 5.2% year over year. Non-GAAP gross margin expanded 60 basis points (bps) to 27.5%. Higher revenues and improved productivity are the key reasons behind these improvements in gross profit and margin.
Non-GAAP operating expenses declined 7.7% year on year to $277 million, chiefly on the company’s cost-cutting initiatives to address the pandemic’s impact on the business. The firm’s cost-cutting measures, included salary reductions, curtailing travels, and elimination of certain contractors.
Non-GAAP operating income increased to $148 million from the year-ago quarter’s $104 million. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded 270 bps to 9.6% from the year-earlier quarter’s 6.9%.
Other Financial Details
NCR ended the March-end quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $319 million compared with the $338 million reported during the December-end quarter.
Free cash inflow totaled $98 million compared with the prior quarter’s $20 million. Net cash provided by operating activities was $155 million during the first quarter.
Notably, NCR suspended its share-repurchase program and merger and acquisition activities, and cut senior employee salaries among other cost-containment measure during first-quarter 2020, in order to strengthen the company’s liquidity position.
Additionally, on Mar 24, the company withdrew the remaining available funds of $630 million from its five-year, $1.1-billion revolving credit facility. Also, on Apr 13, the company issued $400 million of senior unsecured notes.
Furthermore, the company deleveraged its balance sheet by $200 million in August 2020 through redeeming $1.3 billion of debt and issuing $1.1 billion of debt.
Zacks Rank and Key Picks
NCR currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include
Lam Research Corporation
LRCX
,
Micron
MU
and
NVIDIA
NVDA
. Lam Research and Micron sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while NVIDIA carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here
.
The long-term earnings growth rate for Lam Research, Micron, and NVIDIA is currently pegged at 32.8%, 15.7% and 15.1%, respectively.
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