Level 3 Communications Earnings: Here’s Why the Stock is Crashing Now

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:LVLT) had a loss and missed Wall Street’s expectations, BUT beat the revenue expectation. The revenue beat is a positive sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are down 10%.

Level 3 Communications Inc. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased to $-0.26 in the quarter versus EPS of $-1.15 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 5.84% to $1.61 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Level 3 Communications Inc. reported adjusted EPS loss of $-0.26 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $-0.18. It beat the average revenue estimate of $1.61 billion.

Quoting Management: “Level 3 continued to grow revenue in the fourth quarter, and we see the opportunity to improve revenue growth in 2013,” said James Crowe, CEO of Level 3. “We made good progress with integration throughout 2012, invested in the business for future growth, and firmed up our balance sheet with over $4.5 billion of capital markets transactions last year, positioning us well for 2013.”

Key Stats (on next page)…