Telephone And Data System Q1 Profit Falls, Misses View; Affirms 2016 Outlook

(RTTNews) - Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS) reported a sharp decline in profit for the first quarter on lower revenues, while the prior-year quarter's results were boosted by one-time gains.

For the first quarter, met income attributable to TDS shareholders was $8 million or $0.07 per share, down sharply from $146 million or $1.33 per share in the the comparable period one year ago.

On average, three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.10 per share. Analysts estimates usually exclude special items.

The company noted that year-over-year comparisons were affected by pre-tax gains of $247 million, or $155 million after-tax, from sales and exchanges of businesses and licenses in 2015.

Total operating revenues for the quarter declined 1 percent to $1.243 billion from $1.252 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.26 billion.

Looking ahead to the full year 2016, the company affirmed its outlook for operating revenues in a range of $5.04 billion to $5.29 billion and adjusted EBITDA in a range of $1.00 billion to $1.165 billion. The Street projects earnings of $0.23 per share for the year on revenues of $5.16 billion.