CTL CenturyLink Inc

   By Josh Beckerman 
 

CenturyLink Inc.'s (CTL) second-quarter profit rose 37%, as growth in high-bandwidth data services helped offset lower landline business and operating expenses declined.

The communications and information technology company had 311,000 Prism TV customers at June 30, up from 258,000 a year earlier.

CenturyLink expects third-quarter earnings excluding items of 52 cents to 57 cents a share on revenue of $4.35 billion to $4.4 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect 62 cents and $4.39 billion, respectively.

In after-hours trading, shares fell 2.65% to $29.70.

CenturyLink has stepped up its operations in cloud technology and other sectors in recent years with the acquisitions of Tier 3, Cognilytics and Orchestrate. It bought security services firm netAura LLC in March and application management service ElasticBox in June.

CenturyLink said in November that it would explore a potential sale or joint venture for its data centers.

For the quarter ended June 30, net income was $196 million, or 36 cents a share, compared with $143 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. Earnings excluding items rose to 63 cents a share from 55 cents.

Operating revenue fell 0.5% to $4.4 billion, while operating expenses fell 3% to $3.75 billion.

CenturyLink had projected earnings excluding items of 57 cents to 62 cents a share on operating revenue of $4.38 billion to $4.43 billion.

Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2016 22:02 ET (02:02 GMT)

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