adminBy Will Feuer
Shares of Lumen Technologies lost about a quarter of their value after the Quantum Fiber and CenturyLink parent reported a third-quarter loss, reached a new deal with its creditors and revised plans for its fiber buildout.
The stock fell 25% to $1.10 in morning trading. Shares are down almost 79% this year.
The company on Tuesday evening reported a third-quarter loss of $78 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a profit of $578 million, or 57 cents a share, in the same period last year.
The adjusted loss of 9 cents a share was below analysts’ expectations for earnings of 4 cents a share.
Revenue slipped about 17% to $3.64 billion, topping analysts’ expectations.
Lumen also reached a deal with a group of its creditors that gives the company more time to pay back some of its debt and also gives Lumen $1.2 billion in fresh financing.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Stansbury said the deal also means interest costs are going to increase sooner than initially forecast. As a result, he said the company will scale back its plans to ramp up the buildout of its consumer-facing fiber-to-the-home network.
“We will continue to build at a pace similar to what we’re doing this year, but we’ll increase our focus on driving penetration and [average revenue per user] and growth,” he said. The company is focusing its investments on its enterprise fiber business.
Chief Executive Kate Johnson, who took over last year and has been working to turn the company’s fortunes around, said Lumen is cutting costs, including by reducing its workforce by about 4%.
Write to Will Feuer at [email protected]
Read the full article here
