BOSTON—American Tower Corp. narrowed its financial losses, reporting first-quarter net losses of $2.6 million from revenue of $320.4 million compared to the year-ago loss of $31.6 million based on revenue of $184.4 million.
“American Tower made significant progress over the past quarter,” stated Jim Taiclet, chief executive officer of American Tower. “We have substantially completed the integration related to our merger with SpectraSite [Inc.], while continuing to deliver strong performance across our entire portfolio.”
In early March, American Tower pointed to accounting changes and an increase in outstanding shares as it posted fourth-quarter net losses of $87.3 million based on revenues of $307.6 million. At the time, the nation’s largest tower company said its 67-percent increase in revenue was due in large part to its acquisition of SpectraSite in August, which gave the company 10,000 additional towers.
American Tower said its first-quarter revenues increased by 74 percent, $108.5 million of which was attributable to SpectraSite rental and management segment revenues.
During the quarter, the company said it constructed 54 towers and installed 13 in-building systems.
Looking forward, American Tower, which owns about 22,000 towers, said it expects to post net income of $1 million to $3 million from revenue of between $317 million and $322 million.
“With our solid first-quarter results and the strong performance of our wireless carrier customers, we expect to continue to deliver strong operating results as we focus on leveraging the quality of our diversified tower portfolio and integrated operations to meet our customers’ needs,” added Taiclet. “We are excited to build on our operational momentum as we continue to refine our processes to decrease our cycle times and improve our service to our customers, enabling them to deploy their networks in a cost effective, time efficient manner.”
Wall Street seemed happy with the earnings report, as American Tower’s stock traded up $1.32 to $34.51 per share this morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
Crown Castle International Corp., the nation’s second-largest tower company, said it plans to report its first-quarter results later today, after the financial markets close.
