Frontier Communications (FTR) Reports In-Line Q4 Revenue, Suspends Dividend

(Updated - February 27, 2018 4:49 PM EST)

Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR) reported Q4 EPS of ($0.59), $0.45 better than the analyst estimate of ($1.04). Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.22 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.21 billion.

The company's Board of Directors suspends the quarterly cash dividend on the Company’s common stock.

“Our fourth quarter results highlight the ongoing progress on our key initiatives to improve customer retention, enhance the customer experience, and align our cost structure,” said Dan McCarthy, President and CEO. “We are pleased with continued improvement in subscriber trends and churn in our California, Texas and Florida (CTF) markets, and the continued operating efficiencies achieved in the fourth quarter. As we implement our strategy, our board regularly evaluates the optimal long-term capital allocation for the business, and has voted to suspend the dividend on common shares. The suspension will make available an additional $250 million annually2 to accelerate debt reduction. For 2018, we remain committed to enhancing the customer experience, further improving churn, maintaining strong cash flow, and strengthening the balance sheet as we pursue further stabilization of the business and growth longer-term.”

Guidance

Our full year 2018 guidance includes a new metric, operating free cash flow. Operating free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, is defined as net cash provided from operating activities less capital expenditures. Operating free cash flow is directly calculable from our GAAP financial statements and is a more appropriate free cash flow metric for the Company now that the integration of the CTF properties, with its associated integration and acquisition costs, is complete.

For the full year 2018, Frontier’s guidance is the following:

Adjusted EBITDA6 – Approximately $3.6 billion
Capital expenditures – $1.0 billion to $1.15 billion
Cash taxes – Less than $25 million
Cash pension/OPEB – Approximately $150 million
Interest expense – Approximately $1.5 billion
Operating free cash flow7 – Approximately $800 million

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Frontier Communications (FTR) click here.

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