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Telecoms cut it close
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April 21, 1999: 10:54 a.m. ET
US West matches estimates and year-ago results, while Alltel goes 1 cent better
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Telecommunications firms rang up a party line of earnings reports Wednesday, as Qwest, Alltel and US West all announced quarterly earnings figures.
Telecom company US West 's earnings were about as vanilla as can be. The company announced first-quarter diluted earnings of 78 cents per share, exactly matching the results from the same first quarter one year ago. In addition, the results were in line with expectations.
Sol Trujillo, president of US West (USW), expressed satisfaction with the results, saying the Denver-based company's spending also increased during the quarter as it ramped up new services and initiatives.
The company also said it signed up about 35,000 new customers, bringing its overall base to nearly 220,000 in what is traditionally the slowest quarter in the wireless market.
In early trading, US West's stock lost 5/8 to 54-1/16 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Alltel managed to squeak over Wall Street expectations in the first quarter, helped by the expansion of operations into the Southeast.
The Little Rock, Ark.-based Alltel said its net income rose 31 percent to $167 million, or 59 cents per share, from the same period one year ago when it chalked up earnings of $127 million, or 46 cents per share.
The results managed to rise 1 cent over First Call's consensus of analysts estimates for Alltel of 58 cents per share.
The company said increased services in Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas helped the quarterly results and that it added 85,000 new customers from the acquisition of the Richmond, Va. market.
Alltel (AT) was unchanged at 70-7/8 in early morning trading.
Qualcomm's stock was much more active on Wednesday, leaping 41-7/16 to 182 1/16 on the Nasdaq.
Investors were reacting to the wireless communications equipment company's first-quarter earnings report, released late Tuesday, which showed a larger-than-expected loss of $43 million, or 59 cents per share, during the second fiscal quarter.
However, investors looked on the bright side, noticing that when those one-time charges are excluded, Qualcomm had record earnings of $65 million.
The San Diego-based company said the losses were due to $166 million in charges related to its sale of some wireless operations to Sweden's Ericsson last month.
Qwest managed to turn things around, as its first-quarter results showed.
It said it had net earnings of $4.8 million, or 1 cent per share, compared to a loss of $20 million, or 6 cents per share, for the same period one year earlier. First Call estimates predicted a break-even quarter for the long-distance phone service company.
Qwest is currently undergoing a period of expansion, entering into joint ventures in Europe. In addition, it earlier this week said it had teamed up with BellSouth to provide Internet-based broadband services. As part of that deal, BellSouth picked up 10 percent of Qwest.
Qwest (QWST) rose 5-3/8 to 95-7/8 in morning trading Wednesday.
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Qwest
US West
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