Windstream Sees 29% Decrease in Profit
Telephone and broadband provider
Windstream
(WIN) - Get Windstream Holdings, Inc. Report
announced today that its first-quarter earnings declined 29%, hurt by a slide in revenue and extra costs for pensions and other one-time items.
During the quarter, the company earned $88.2 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with $123.7 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 24 cents a share, beating expectations by a penny.
Revenue fell 6% to $755 million from $800 million a year ago.
The company said it added about 31,000 high-speed Internet customers during the quarter, bringing the total to more than 1 million.
Its digital satellite television customers grew by 21,000 to roughly 295,000. But as a result of customers increasingly relying solely on cell phones, Windstream lost about 44,000 land lines, lowering its total to just under 3 million.
The company expects to generate between $705 million and $775 million in free cash flow during the year after a bigger-than-anticipated tax benefit.
Shares of the company rose 3% to $9.01 in morning trading.
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