Altice USA, Inc. ATUS reported soft fourth-quarter 2024 results, with both adjusted earnings and revenues missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.
The company witnessed revenue contraction year over year, owing to weak demand trends in the Residential, Business Services and Wholesale segments. However, growth in mobile line and fiber customer net additions, focus on network upgrades, improved customer care and financial discipline were the positives.
Net Income
Altice reported a net loss of $54.1 million or a loss of 12 cents per share compared with a loss of $117.8 million or a loss of 26 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. Lower operating expenses led to a narrower loss during the quarter. The bottom line, however, missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 15 cents.
In 2024, Altice reported a net loss of $102.9 million or a loss of 22 cents per share against a net income of $53.2 million or 12 cents per share in 2023.
Altice USA, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Altice USA, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Altice USA, Inc. Quote
Revenues
Total revenues in the quarter were $2.2 billion, down from $2.3 billion in the prior-year quarter. Declining net sales from broadband and video customers impeded the top line, which missed the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion.
In 2024, net sales totaled $8.95 billion compared with $9.24 billion in 2023.
The company made progress in its growth strategies by accelerating network enhancement and customer experience. At the quarter-end, Altice had 2.96 billion FTTH (Fiber to the home) passings, about 68,100 of which were added in the September-December period.
FTTH broadband net additions were more than 56,600 in the quarter, led by more than double the pace of fiber migrations of existing customers and higher fiber gross additions. Total fiber broadband customers reached 538,000 by the end of the quarter. Residential average revenue per user (ARPU) declined 1.5% year over year to $133.95.
Business services and Wholesale revenues declined to $371.3 million from the year-ago quarter’s tally of $371.9 million. However, net sales surpassed our revenue estimate of $356.3 million.
News and Advertising revenues increased to $157.5 million from the year-ago quarter’s $128.1 million, primarily driven by strong political advertising in the quarter. Net sales beat our revenue estimate of $139.5 million.
Residential revenues (which include Broadband, Video and Telephony) were $1.69 billion, down from $1.79 billion in the year-earlier quarter. This was primarily due to the loss of higher ARPU video customers. The segment's revenue missed our estimate of $1.73 billion.
Other Quarterly Details
Operating income improved to $340.8 million from $302.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $837.5 million compared with $903.3 million in the prior-year quarter. Optimum Mobile witnessed healthy subscriber growth during the quarter, reaching 460,000 customers. Altice’s total passings grew more than 210,000 and reached 9.8 million at the end of the full year 2024.
Cash Flow & Liquidity
In 2024, Altice generated $1.58 billion of cash from operating activities compared with $1.83 billion in 2023. As of Dec. 31, 2024, the company’s net debt was $24.84 billion.
ATUS’ Zacks Rank
Altice currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Upcoming Releases
Keysight Technologies, Inc. KEYS is scheduled to release first-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings on Feb. 25. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.69 per share, indicating growth of 3.68% from the year-ago figure.
Workday, Inc. WDAY is scheduled to release fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings on Feb. 25. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.75 per share, indicating growth of 11.5% from the year-ago figure.
Light and Wonder LNW is scheduled to release fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 25. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.08 per share, indicating growth of 47.95% from the year-ago figure.
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