Adac Shares Fall on Restated Sales

Adac Laboratories, the largest U.S. maker of nuclear imaging equipment used in hospitals, said accounting problems will lower its sales and earnings for fiscal 1996 and 1997, sending its shares plunging 19%.

Adac shares fell $5.25 to close at $21.88 on Nasdaq, and earlier traded as low as $16.88. Milpitas-based Adac said it will record some past revenue in later quarters than it did before, affecting results for the last three fiscal years.

Hospital buying groups, under pressure from health insurers to cut costs, are reluctant to make down payments on imaging equipment, paying instead when it’s installed, analysts said. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Adac’s accounting firm, told the company it needed to record some past revenue closer to the time it received its payments.

Adac said it’s not sure how the changes will affect reported results for fiscal 1998.