Atlantic Tele-Network (ATNI) reports Q1 loss, misses revenue estimates

Atlantic Tele-Network (ATNI) came out with a quarterly loss of $0.30 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $0.12. This compares to a loss of $0.13 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for one-time items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -150%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this telecommunications services provider would post earnings of $0.03 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.18, delivering a surprise of -700%.

The company has failed to exceed consensus earnings per share estimates over the last four quarters.

Atlantic Tele-Network, which belongs to the Zacks Wireless Domestic industry, posted revenues of $185.77 million for the quarter ended March 2023, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.21%. This compares to revenues of $172.02 million in the prior year. The company has surpassed the consensus revenue estimate twice over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the immediate share price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will largely depend on management’s commentary on the earnings call.

Year-to-date, Atlantic Tele-Network shares have lost about 14.3%, while the S&P 500 Index has gained 6.1%.

What’s next for the Atlantic Television Network?

Although Atlantic Tele-Network has underperformed the market this year, the question that comes to investors’ minds is: what’s next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable indicator that can help investors address this is the company’s earnings outlook. This includes not only the current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how those expectations have changed recently.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings report, the estimate revision trend for Atlantic Tele-Network is favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company’s just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. As such, the stock is expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the next quarters and the current fiscal year change in the coming days. The current consensus EPS estimate is -$0.01 on revenue of $197.6M for the coming quarter and $0.10 on revenue of $798.43M for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be aware that the outlook for an industry can also have a significant impact on stock prices. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Wireless National currently ranks in the top 34% of the 250+ Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Cogent Communications (CCOI), another company in the same industry, is yet to release results for the quarter ending March 2023. The results are expected to be released on May 4.

In its upcoming report, the internet service provider is expected to post quarterly earnings per share of $0.08, which would represent a year-over-year change of +300%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter was unchanged over the past 30 days.

Cogent Communications revenue is expected to be $153.73 million, up 3.1% from the year-ago quarter.

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