Q1 Earnings Outlook For CenturyLink

On Wednesday, May 8, CenturyLink CTL will release its latest earnings report. Check out Benzinga's preview to understand the implications.

Earnings and Revenue

CenturyLink earnings will be near 27 cents per share on sales of $5.71 billion, according to analysts.

CenturyLink earnings in the same period a year ago was 25 cents. Quarterly sales came in at $5.95 billion. If the company were to report inline earnings when it publishes results Wednesday, earnings would be up 8.00 percent. Revenue would be down 3.95 percent from the year-ago period. Here's how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of CenturyLink were trading at $11.41 as of May 8. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 38.26 percent. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are likely unhappy going into this earnings release.

Over the past 90 days, analysts have adjusted their estimates higher for EPS and revenues. The popular rating by analysts on CenturyLink stock is a Sell. The strength of this rating has dwindled over the past 90 days.

Conference Call

CenturyLink's conference call is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. ET and can be accessed here: https://78449.choruscall.com/dataconf/productusers/ctl/mediaframe/29603/indexr.html