CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) - Investment analysts at Jefferies Group lowered their Q2 2017 earnings per share estimates for shares of CenturyLink in a research report issued on Monday. Jefferies Group analyst M. Mccormack now expects that the technology company will earn $0.48 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.49. Jefferies Group has a “Hold” rating and a $23.00 price target on the stock.
CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The technology company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.27 billion. CenturyLink had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 8.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share.
CTL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of CenturyLink from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. Vetr raised shares of CenturyLink from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $27.12 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 8th. Cowen and Company lifted their price objective on shares of CenturyLink from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. Raymond James Financial, Inc. reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of CenturyLink in a research report on Monday, May 15th. Finally, BidaskClub lowered shares of CenturyLink from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.22.
Shares of CenturyLink (CTL) opened at 23.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $23.98 and a 200-day moving average of $24.49. CenturyLink has a one year low of $22.26 and a one year high of $33.45. The company has a market capitalization of $12.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90 and a beta of 0.87.
Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in CenturyLink by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 19,062 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $454,000 after buying an additional 1,067 shares during the period. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. raised its stake in CenturyLink by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,036,768 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,434,000 after buying an additional 185,251 shares during the period. Teachers Advisors LLC raised its stake in CenturyLink by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Teachers Advisors LLC now owns 1,224,363 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,115,000 after buying an additional 21,072 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems acquired a new stake in CenturyLink during the fourth quarter valued at about $943,000. Finally, Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund acquired a new stake in CenturyLink during the fourth quarter valued at about $421,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
About CenturyLink
CenturyLink, Inc is an integrated communications company. The Company is engaged in providing an array of communications services to its residential and business customers. Its segments include business, which provides strategic, legacy and data integration products and services to small, medium and enterprise business, wholesale and governmental customers, including other communication providers, and consumer, which provides strategic and legacy products and services to residential customers.
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