Enterprise Sales Give tw telecom Boost

By Josh Long

Thanks largely to enterprises customers spending more on data and Internet services, tw telecom inc. grew its fourth-quarter revenues to $351.5 million.

Revenues increased $26.7 million, or 8.2 percent, over the year-ago quarter, the, the company announced Wednesday.

The Littleton, Colo.-based telecommunications company posted a slightly lower fourth-quarter profit ($16.4 million) than in the same period a year ago ($17.5 million).

For the entire year, revenues rose 7.4 percent to $1.367 billion. However, tw telecom’s net income plunged from $340.9 million in 2010 to $57.9 million last year.

Shares of tw telecom were trading Friday at $21.16 as of 2:22 ET, and the stock has ranged in price over the last 52 weeks from a low of $15.42 to a high of $22.87. In November 2011, tw telecom announced that it’s board authorized the company to buy back up to $300 million in shares. The company said it returned $58.6 million to shareholders last year through share repurchases.

As of Dec. 31, tw telecom served around 27,500 customers and was sitting on $484.9 million in cash, equivalents and short-term investments.