Frontier Communications Corporation (FTR) Lowered to Hold at Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday, July 17th.

According to Zacks, “We are impressed with the company's focus to rake in more profits through customer retention, market share gain, new product introductions, broadband expansion and improved sales and marketing initiatives. The company is trying to derive benefits from the growing Business Service Segment. Meanwhile, foraying into North Carolina through the rollout of ‘Vantage TV’ IPTV and broadband services also bode well. Howover, the company continues to suffer from the loss of legacy fixed telephony business to wireless and decline in access lines and wireless backhaul revenues due to customer migration to Ethernet solutions at lower price points. Reports about outages, bad telephone service and problems with billing have sprouted. Over the past three months, the stock price moved down 49.22% whereas the Zacks Wireline–Regional (Rural) industry declined 27.63%.”

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on FTR. ValuEngine upgraded Frontier Communications Corporation from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, July 11th. BidaskClub downgraded Frontier Communications Corporation from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a report on Thursday, July 13th. Citigroup Inc. decreased their price objective on Frontier Communications Corporation from $2.25 to $1.75 and set a sell rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 20th. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) downgraded Frontier Communications Corporation from a neutral rating to a sell rating and set a $1.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, March 22nd. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Frontier Communications Corporation from $2.30 to $4.20 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, March 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $5.21.

Shares of Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) traded up 9.15% during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $15.87. 5,629,085 shares of the stock traded hands. Frontier Communications Corporation has a 52 week low of $13.13 and a 52 week high of $74.70. The stock’s market cap is $1.23 billion. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $16.43 and its 200-day moving average is $30.01.

Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported ($1.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of ($1.07) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.31 billion. Frontier Communications Corporation had a negative net margin of 9.35% and a negative return on equity of 1.28%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.29) EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Frontier Communications Corporation will post ($3.48) earnings per share for the current year.

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The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 15.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. This is an increase from Frontier Communications Corporation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. Frontier Communications Corporation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -16.65%.

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Federated Investors Inc. PA boosted its position in Frontier Communications Corporation by 2.5% in the second quarter. Federated Investors Inc. PA now owns 671,875 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 16,302 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA boosted its position in shares of Frontier Communications Corporation by 61.2% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 1,067,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,652,000 after buying an additional 405,294 shares during the period. Comerica Bank boosted its position in shares of Frontier Communications Corporation by 1.3% in the second quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 940,739 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $997,000 after buying an additional 12,067 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Frontier Communications Corporation by 7.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 25,636,186 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,738,000 after buying an additional 1,757,905 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Frontier Communications Corporation by 3.1% in the second quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,073,545 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,205,000 after buying an additional 210,895 shares during the period.

Frontier Communications Corporation Company Profile

Frontier Communications Corporation (Frontier) is a provider of communications services in the United States. The Company offers a portfolio of communications services for residential and business customers. Its products and services include data and Internet services, video services, voice services, access services and customer premise equipment (CPE).

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