Digex Beats Estimates, but Guides Down for First Quarter

Earnings Scorecard
Actual	Estimated*	Year-Ago
-$0.65	-$0.69	-$0.36

Digex (DIGX Quote) easily beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates this morning, but the company projected first quarter and 2001 losses that would be wider than analysts are expecting.

Shares of Digex lost $1.75, or 6.4%, to $25.75 in early Nasdaq trading.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, Digex lost $41.4 million, or 65 cents a share, excluding charges. The company lost $22.4 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Seventeen analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial expected the company, which is based in Beltsville, Md., to report a loss of 69 cents a share.

Digex, a provider of Web site and application hosting services, posted fourth-quarter revenue of $57.9 million, a sharp increase from $21.7 million in the same quarter one year ago.

For the first quarter, the company expects revenue of $53 million to $54 million and a loss of 73 cents to 77 cents a share. Analysts expect the company to lose 71 cents a share in the first quarter. For 2001, the company projected revenue of $285 million to $295 million and a loss of $2.60 to $2.65 a share. Analysts estimate the company will lose $2.59 a share for the year.