Frontier, CBeyond Earn a Bit of Respect

Frontier Communications (NYSE:FTR, news, filings) and cbey each managed a rare feat over the last day or two: turning in a quarter of wireline financial results that actually made the market happy.

Frontier turned in its Q2 earnings after hours on Tuesday. Revenues of $1.259B and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.08 were both above expectations, the company maintained its current capex and cash flow guidance. Residential and business customer rolls both fell, but not as fast as in prior quarters. Frontier has slipped off the radar of many since taking over Verizon’s unwanted markets, but they’re paying a big dividend and have been making steady progress. The market liked what they saw, and the stock was up 10% today.

Cbeyond also beat expectations for both revenue and earnings per share.  Revenues of $123.8M were slightly ahead of projections of $122.3M, but adjusted EBITDA of $27.2M and earnings per share of $0.09 easily outdistanced projections of a loss of $0.03.  They did it on the back of lower SG&A expenses, as they reduced headcount in their telecom business prior to adding headcount in the managed services and cloud side of the business they are trying to transform into.  Cbeyond has gotten absolutely no love from the market over the past year or two, with its EV/EBITDA ratio closing in on 2 from above.  But after hours today the stock was up almost 7%, a trend which will hopefully hold through tomorrow.

 

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Categories: CLEC · Financials · ILECs, PTTs