Crown Castle posts 4th-quarter profit

posted: 13 DAYS 14 HOURS AGO

Text SizeAAA

HOUSTON -Crown Castle International Corp., which owns and operates cell phone towers, posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit Wednesday as revenue grew, but it forecast a loss for the current period.

The fourth quarter's net income attributable to stockholders, after the deduction of dividends on preferred stock, totaled $12.9 million, or 4 cents per share. That compares with a loss of $69 million, or 24 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 13 percent to $443.5 million from $392 million.

Analysts, on average, forecast a loss of a penny per share on sales of $436.3 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

For the full year, the net loss attributable to company shareholders, after the deduction of dividends on preferred stock, totaled $135.1 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with a loss of $69.7 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed to $1.69 billion from $1.53 billion.

For the first quarter, Crown Castle forecast a net loss after deduction of dividends on preferred stock totaling 15 cents to 25 cents per share. Analysts expect the company to break even on a per-share basis.

The company expects full-year per-share results in the range of a loss of 21 cents to a profit of a penny. Analysts project profit of 12 cents per share.

Shares rose 81 cents, or 2.2 percent, to close at $38.25.

2010-01-27 19:16:40