Gtech stock jumps on strong financial report

Thursday, June 20, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

WEST GREENWICH, R.I. -- Gtech Holdings Corp., an operator of lottery games and systems, on Wednesday raised its fiscal 2003 earnings outlook after first-quarter profit jumped 52 percent. The shares then rose 10 percent.

Earnings for the fiscal year ending in February are expected to be $1.70 to $1.80 a share, the West Greenwich-based company said in a statement. Gtech's previous forecast was $1.65 to $1.70 a share.

Net income in the first quarter rose to $29 million, or 49 cents a share, from $19.1 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call was 43 cents. Sales fell to $231.4 million from $235 million, the company said in a statement.

Gtech said it entered sales contracts and extensions valued at about $75 million since the beginning of the year. Prior-year earnings were adjusted for a 2-for-1 stock split and for an accounting rule change on how the company values its assets.

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