Cincinnati Bell (CBB) Tops Q3 Earnings and Revenues Estimates

Cincinnati Bell Inc. CBB is a leading regional diversified telecommunications and technology service provider to both residential and business customers. The company operates through three segments: Wireline, IT Services & Hardware and Wireless.

Cincinnati Bell continues to experience erosion in high-margin local access lines. Expansion and maintenance of its networks require significant capital expenditures. Intense competition in the company’s operational region can be a drag on the company’s pricing power, thereby inducing downward pressure on its margins.

Moreover, in second-quarter 2017, the company’s performance in certain metrics was quite disappointing. We expect the company to recover from these factors in the to-be-reported quarter.

However, we appreciate Cincinnati Bell’s efforts to transform itself from a telecom company into a technology company with fiber assets offering flexible data, video, voice and IP solutions to consumers and business clients.

Cincinnati Bell currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). A better-ranked company in this space is TELUS Corp. TU with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The company has generated a negative average earnings surprise of 1.04% in the previous four quarters. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: Cincinnati Bell beats Q3 2017 earnings. Our consensus estimate called for adjusted loss per share of 2 cents while the company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 3 cents. Investors should note that these figures take out stock option expenses.

Revenue: Cincinnati Bell reported total revenues of $289.2 million surpassing our consensus estimate by around $2.9 million.

Key States to Note: At the end of the third quarter of 2017, Cincinnati Bell had 0.1876 million residential voice lines, down 8.4% year over year and 0.3240 million business voice lines, up 1.6% year over year. Long distance lines were 0.2991 million, down 7.6%. DSL Internet subscribers were 0.0867 million, down 24.1%. Fioptics Internet customers were 0.2212 million, up 19.2%. Fioptics video subscribers were 0.1435 million, up 7.6% year over year.

Check back later for our full write up on this Cincinnati Bell earnings report later!

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