Automated teller machine giant NCR is exploring options including selling assets, boosting its dividends or making other moves that might make its stock and balance sheet more appealing, according to a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal.
Duluth-based NCR has been under shareholder pressure to improve performance. The company under CEO Bill Nuti has been working to transform itself from a hardware-centric business into more of a software and consulting company. But the transition hasn’t been smooth.
Demand for its traditional retail offerings, including self-serve kiosks, cash registers and other point-of-sale devices, hasn’t been as strong, the paper reported.
The WSJ, citing unnamed people, said a sale of the company is possible but “less-likely.”
An NCR spokesman declined to comment on rumors and speculation.
NCR made headlines earlier this year when it announced it intends to move its headquarters from Gwinnett County into a new $260 million headquarters campus planned for Midtown Atlanta near Georgia Tech, as first reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A second suburban office site also is planned.
Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the AJC he “would not at all be surprised” by the reports.
He said such moves have been pushed by activist shareholders, and the timing seems appropriate in the wake of NCR’s annual meeting, held online earlier Wednesday.
NCR last year appointed the founder of Marcato Capital Management to its board, and the Marcato has expressed a desire for NCR to improve performance and consider strategic moves.
Over the past few quarters, Nuti has made references to analysts about exploring strategic alternatives, including divestitures of assets. In the third quarter, however, he said mergers and acquisitions were not on the table.
“We’re still looking at (strategic alternatives) and evaluating opportunities to divest non-core businesses,” Nuti said, according to a transcript of the company’s fourth quarter earnings report on Seeking Alpha. “That’s underway, so no major change there. And we’ll continue to look at that throughout the year and come back to you at some point when we have more definitive follow-up.”
Staff writer Sean Sposito contributed to this report.
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