Telecom Stock Roundup: Telephone & Data Systems, U.S. Cellular And TELUS Post Strong Q2
Zacks Investment Research | Aug 10, 2016 09:55PM ET
Like the previous two weeks, last week was all about earnings in the telecom sector. Several sector participants revealed their second-quarter 2016 financial numbers.
Telephone & Data Systems Inc. (NYSE:TDS) and its wireless subsidiary United States Cellular Corp. (NYSE:USM) reported strong financial results in the second quarter of 2016, wherein both the top and the bottom lines surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.
As of Jun 30, 2016, Telephone & Data Systems had 590,200 residential wireline connections, up 0.4% year over year.The company exited the reported quarter with 334,900 commercial wireline connections, down 4.5% year over year.Total cable connections were 287,600, up 5.4% year over year.
On the other hand, U.S. Cellular exited the second quarter with a subscriber base of 4,973,000 compared with 4,779,000 at the end of the year-ago quarter. The postpaid subscriber base was 4,490,000 compared with 4,324,000 at the end of the prior-year quarter. The prepaid subscriber base totaled 413,000 compared with 368,000 at the end of the year-ago quarter.
Regional telecom operators, CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE:CTL) and Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CBB) reported mixed results. CenturyLink’s bottom line outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate while the top line came in slightly below the consensus. Cincinnati Bell’s top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate but the bottom line missed the same.
As of Jun 30, 2016, CenturyLink’s total access lines were 11.413 million, down 5.7% year over year. High-speed broadband customer count was 5.99 million, down 1.9% and Prism TV customer was 0.311 million, up 20.5%. On the other hand, Cincinnati Bell had 0.2091 million residential local access lines, down 7.4% year over year and 0.3159 million business local access lines, up 2.9% year over year.
Small-sized cable MSO (multi service operator) Cable ONE Inc. (NYSE:CABO) reported strong financial results in the second quarter of 2016. Both the top and the bottom line surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. As of Jun 30, 2016, the total customer base of Cable ONE was 659,943, down 1.8% year over year. The non-video customer base was 316,745, up 17.1% year over year.
Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN) reported mixed financial results in the second quarter of 2016. The company incurred narrower-than-expected loss in the quarter, while revenues lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate.In the reported quarter, Windstream lost 4% of its high-speed Internet customers and 8% of its digital television subscribers.
Major cable MSO Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) also reported strong financial results in the second quarter of 2016, with both the bottom and the top line outpacing the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. As of Jun 30, 2016, Charter Communications had 16.934 million video, 20.667 million high-speed Internet and 10.255 million voice customers for the residential segment. It also serves 378,000 video, 1,148,000 high-speed Internet and 725,000 voice subscribers in the commercial segment.
Outside the U.S., two leading Canadian operators, namely, TELUS Corp. (NYSE:TU) and BCE Inc. (TO:BCE) also reported their respective second quarter 2016 financial results. TELUS reported strong financial results with both revenues and earnings outpacing the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, BCE disappointed, with both the top and the bottom line lagging the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.
As of Jun 30, 2016, TELUS had 8.427 million wireless subscribers, up 0.9% year over year.Total wireline subscriber count was 4.067 million, up 1.9% year over year.The total wireless subscriber base of BCE increased 1.9% to 8,280,693. BCE had 2,750,596 TV subscribers, up 2.8% year over year.
Europe and Latin America based leading cable MSO and mobile service provider Liberty Global Plc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA) reported strong financial results in the second quarter, wherein both the top and the bottom line surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.
As of Jun 30, 2016, Liberty Global had 25.7241 million subscribers, which constituted 53.9 million RGUs (revenue generating units). Of the total, 22.5 million were video RGUs, 17.1 million were broadband Internet RGUs and the remaining 14.3 million were telephony RGUs. Moreover, the company had 6.7 million mobile subscribers.
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