American Tower Q4 Profit Declines 26%

(RTTNews) - Communication tower sites operator American Tower Corp. (AMT) reported Tuesday a profit for the fourth quarter that declined 26 percent from last year, despite strong double-digit revenue growth, reflecting higher unrealized non-cash foreign currency losses. Quarterly revenues topped analysts' expectations. The company also provided initial net income and revenue guidance for the full-year 2014.

The Boston, Massachusetts-based REIT reported net income of $99.98 million or $0.25 per share for the fourth quarter, lower than $135.68 million or $0.34 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Funds from operations or FFO, for the quarter increased to $332.38 million from $298.32 million last year, and adjusted FFO was $378.17 million or $0.95 per share, compared to $295.29 million or $0.74 per share last year.

On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.47 per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total operating revenues for the quarter increased 22.6 percent to $941.97 million from $768.37 million in the same quarter last year, and topped seventeen Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $920.07 million.

Total rental and management revenues rose 24.9 percent to $923.9 million from last year. Core growth was about 30.8 percent. Network development services revenue declined to $18.1 million from last year's $28.69 million.

Domestic rental and management segment revenue increased 24.6 percent to $622.7 million, and international rental and management segment revenue rose 25.6 percent to $301.2 million from the year-ago quarter.

Operating income for the quarter increased 4.9 percent to $292.9 million from last year.

Total operating expenses for the quarter increased to $139.38 million from $104.04 million a year ago. Other expenses totaled $182.82 million, sharply higher than $117.91 million a year ago, including hefty unrealized foreign currency losses.

During the quarter, the company spent about $4.10 billion and assumed $1,576.2 million of debt to acquire an aggregate of 4,869 communication tower sites in the U.S., 680 domestic property interests under third-party communications sites, and 4,241 international communication tower sites.

"In 2013, our global sales and operations teams delivered record levels of new leasing business. Collocations, amendments and annual escalators, net of churn, drove Organic Core Growth of 8.7% domestically and 13.5% in our international markets," CEO Jim Taiclet said in a statement.

For fiscal 2013, American Tower reported net income of $551.33 million or $1.38 per share, lower than $637.28 million or $1.60 per share in the prior year. Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $1.62 per share for the fiscal year 2013.

Funds from operations or FFO, for the year increased to $1.26 billion from $1.20 billion last year, and adjusted FFO was $1.47 billion or $3.68 per share, compared to $1.22 billion or $3.06 per share last year.

Total operating revenues for the full year increased 16.9 percent to $3.36 billion from $2.88 billion in the previous year. Street was looking for full-year 2013 revenues of 3.34 billion.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2014, the company expects net income in a range of $765 million to $805 million, adjusted FFO in the range of $1.68 billion to $1.74 billion and total rental and management revenue between $3.82 billion to $3.91 billion.

Street is currently looking for full-year 2014 earnings of $2.18 per share on annual revenues of $3.98 billion.

"Taken together, our strong organic growth and successful portfolio expansion initiatives made for a great start to achieving our aspirational goal of doubling our 2012 AFFO per Share by 2017," Taiclet added.

AMT closed Monday's regular trading session at $82.98, down $1.08 on a volume of 3.11 million shares.