Windstream 1Q Earnings, Revenue Fall

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Windstream Corp., a telephone and broadband service provider, said Friday its first-quarter profit dropped 29 percent on falling revenue and extra costs for pensions and other one-time items.

The company earned $88.2 million, or 20 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31 compared with $123.7 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier.

Windstream said nonrecurring expenses, including damage from an ice storm, reduced earnings by 4 cents a share, bringing adjusted profit to 24 cents per share.

That is a penny ahead of the average forecast, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts. Analysts typically exclude special items from their estimates.

Revenue fell 6 percent to $755 million from $800 million a year ago. Analysts were looking for higher revenue of $776 million, on average.

The company said in February it would take a total of $90 million in pension charges during the year. For the latest quarter, that came to $14 million.

The company said it added about 31,000 high-speed Internet customers during the quarter, bringing the total above 1 million.

Its base of digital satellite TV customers grew by 21,000 to roughly 295,000.

The company lost about 44,000 land lines, cutting the total to just under 3 million.