EchoStar Q1 Profit Surges, Beats View; But Revenues Miss

(RTTNews) - Satellite services provider EchoStar Corp. (SATS) on Friday reported a surge in profit for the first quarter from last year, reflecting higher revenues as well as lower costs and expenses. Earnings per share for the quarter beat analysts' expectations, while revenues missed their estimates.

Englewood, Colorado-based EchoStar's first-quarter net income attributable to common stock was $12.65 million or $0.14 per share, up from $3.46 million or $0.04 per share in the year-ago period.

On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.03 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

EchoStar attributed the increase in net income for the quarter to higher operating income, an increase in capitalization of interest expense of $3.0 million associated with the construction of the EchoStar XIX and TerreStar-2 satellites, and a decrease of $2.1 million in equity in losses of unconsolidated affiliates.

Total revenues for the quarter grew 4 percent to $826.02 million from $795.45 million in the same period last year, but missed analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $838.44 million for the quarter.

The higher revenues for the quarter reflect an increase in services and other revenue, while equipment revenue decreased from the year-ago period.

Total costs and expenses declined less than 1 percent from the year-ago period to $766.20 million, reflecting lower cost of sales, selling, general and administrative expenses as well as research and development expenses.

EchoStar was spun out of Dish Network Corp. (DISH) in 2008.

SATS closed Thursday's trading at $46.18, up $0.30 or 0.65 percent on a volume of 232,092 shares.