CenturyLink, Inc. (CTL) reported that its second-quarter GAAP net income was $74 million compared to $115 million for second quarter 2011, and earnings per share for second quarter 2012 was $0.12 compared to $0.19 for second quarter 2011.
Second quarter 2012 net income and earnings per share reflect net after-tax impacts of $123 million ($0.20 per share) related to losses on the early retirement of debt, $7 million ($0.01 per share) related to severance, integration and retention costs associated with the Qwest and Savvis acquisitions and $14 million ($0.02 per share) related to severance associated with recent expense reduction initiatives.
Excluding the items, CenturyLink's adjusted net income for second quarter 2012 was $403 million compared to pro forma adjusted net income of $428 million in second quarter 2011. Second quarter 2012 Adjusted earnings per share was $0.65 compared to pro forma adjusted earnings per share of $0.69 in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.62 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Operating revenues for second quarter 2012 were $4.61 billion compared to $4.41 billion in second quarter 2011. This increase was primarily due to $278 million of revenue contributions from the Savvis acquisition completed July 15, 2011, increases in strategic revenues, primarily driven by business customer demand for high-bandwidth data services, growth in high-speed Internet and Prism TV subscribers and higher data integration revenues. Eighteen analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $4.57 billion for the quarter.
Second quarter 2012 operating revenues compared to pro forma second quarter 2011 operating revenues declined 1.2% from $4.67 billion a year ago to $4.61 billion the latest-quarter, due to the decline in legacy revenues more than offsetting the increase in strategic revenues and data integration revenues.
For the third-quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings to be in the range of $0.54 - $0.59 per share, and operating revenue of $4.54 billion to $4.59 billion. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.60 per share on revenues of $4.56 billion for the third-quarter.
For fiscal 2012, the company now expects adjusted earnings to be in the range of $2.45 to $2.55 per share, compared to prior outlook of $2.35 to $2.55 per share.
The company anticipates operating revenue for fiscal 2012 to be in the range of $18.3 billion to $18.4 billion, compared to prior range of $18.2 billion to $18.4 billion.
Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $2.44 per share on revenues of $18.32 billion for fiscal 2012.
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