NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - U.S. Cellular Corp. Wednesday reported
first-quarter earnings of $70.6 million, or 80 cents a share, down from a
year-ago equivalent profit of $74.4 million, or 84 cents a share. The mean
estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for a profit of 82 cents a
share in the March period.
Total operating revenue reached $1.04 billion for the three-month period, up
11% from last year. Service revenue increased 11.8% year-over-year to $962.1
million. The average analysts' view was for revenue of $1.01 billion.
The Chicago-based provider of wireless communications services said it saw
strong growth in data revenue in the quarter, rising 49.2% year-over-year to
$115.7 million, because of new smartphone products and customers' increased use
of messaging services.
The company said its ARPU, average monthly service revenue per unit
increased 6.9% to $52.06 in the latest quarter. It also noted that it
repurchased a total of 150,000 shares in the quarter for $10.8 million in order
to offset dilution from employee benefit plans.
For the full year, U.S. Cellular sees net retail customer additions of
between 200,000 and 275,000, service revenue ranging from $3.9 billion to $4
billion and operating income of $435 million to $510 million.
On Feb. 29, the company forecast net retail customer additions of 250,000 to
325,000 for 2008. At that time, its projection was for operating income of $460
million to $535 million for the year.
U.S. Cellular is a business unit of Telephone & Data Systems, which reported
its first-quarter results earlier Tuesday. The company, whose operations
encompass U.S. Cellular's results and those of the TDS Telecom wireline
business, posted net income of $73.5 million, or 62 cents a share, in the March
period on total operating revenue of $1.25 billion. TDS Telecom revenue totaled
$206.1 million in the quarter.
Shares of U.S. Cellular closed Tuesday at $60.70 while Telephone & Data
Systems' stock finished the session at $40.60.
Michael Baron
mb
COPYRIGHT
Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content,
including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of Thomson Financial News.
|