CEO: Struggling Deluxe Corp. sees "tremendous" positives

Deluxe Corp. (NYSE:DLX) CEO Lee Schram said there were a “tremendous number of positives” during the struggling company’s recently ended second quarter. Schram made the comments during a midday conference call with analysts and investors. Deluxe, the largest U.S. printer of checks, provides a range of customized products and services to small businesses and financial institutions.

“Because of these positives, we remain extremely optimistic about the continued transformation of Deluxe,” the chief executive said.

In a morning press release, Deluxe said it expects a third-quarter profit of between $0.56 and $0.60 per share on revenue ranging from $367 million to $374 million. Wall Street estimates a profit of $0.79 a share on $390.4 million in revenue.

For the full fiscal year, Deluxe projects a profit of between $2.52 and $2.62 per share on revenue of between $1.52 billion and $1.54 billion. Wall Street analysts, on average, project a profit of $2.95 per share on revenue of $1.57 billion.

“Although our revenue is disappointing, driven by challenging economic conditions, we again progressed in the second quarter on our cost reductions but more importantly, we started to build and create a framework for revenue growth through new organic and business services offerings,” CFO Rick Greene said. “Unfortunately, we saw a deterioration in the economy as the second quarter matured and we now expect this impact to continue at this level in the second half of the year. So, we have reduced our revenue outlook to reflect this.”

Deluxe previously forecast a 2008 profit of between $3 and $3.15 per share on revenue ranging from $1.56 billion to $1.59 billion.

Before Thursday’s opening, Deluxe reported second-quarter revenue of . . .

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