Windstream Profit Falls 22%, Business-Service Revenue Up

Revenue from Windstream‘s business services rose slightly in the second quarter, but the company’s profit dropped from $51 million in Q2 2012 to just $39.7 million in Q2 2013.

The Little Rock, Ark.-based company has been shifting its focus over the past few years from a consumer-oriented business to one that is enterprise-focused; yet, the declines in consumer revenue are still taking their toll. Intrastate-access rates tied directly to a decline in voice lines were also a factor in the profit loss, WSJ’s MarketWatch reported.

Overall, revenue was $1.51 billion, down a little less than 2 percent. That was about what analysts were expecting.

Business-service revenue rose to $913 million (about 2 percent) and consumer broadband revenue was up 6 percent; consumer-service revenue as a whole, however, slipped 3 percent, and wholesale revenue was down 13 percent.

On its quarterly earnings call, company execs said they are considering forming a holding company that would serve as a parent company to Windstream. Creating this new, publicly traded company would improve its corporate structure, offer financial flexibility and strengthen its credit profile, Windstream said. The service provider said this week that it would maintain its 25-cent dividend and that the creation of a new holding company wouldn’t impact that.

The company’s stock price was down nearly 4 percent on the earnings news as of 3:36 p.m. ET on Thursday.

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