Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. (NASDAQ: FYBR) announced its first-quarter 2024 results today, marking a significant milestone in its financial performance.
Nick Jeffery, President and CEO of Frontier, expressed satisfaction with the company’s strong start to the year. He highlighted the achievement of a major inflection point, with revenue growing year-over-year for the first time since 2015. Additionally, Frontier delivered its third consecutive quarter of Adjusted EBITDA growth. Jeffery attributed these accomplishments to the team’s relentless execution and emphasized the positive impact of the fast-growing fiber business on financial performance.
Key highlights from the first quarter of 2024 include:
- Addition of 322,000 fiber passings, reaching a total of 6.8 million locations passed with fiber.
- Acquisition of 88,000 fiber broadband customers, reflecting an 18% year-over-year growth.
- Revenue of $1.46 billion, marking a 1.5% increase year-over-year, driven by growth in fiber-based products despite declines in copper-based ones.
- Operating income of $90 million and net income of $1 million.
- Adjusted EBITDA of $547 million, a 5.4% year-over-year increase fueled by revenue growth and cost savings.
- Cash capital expenditures of $666 million, along with $363 million of vendor financing payments, totaling a cash capital investment of $1.0 billion.
- Generation of net cash from operations amounting to $335 million.
Consumer results for the first quarter of 2024 include:
- Consumer revenue of $787 million, up 3.4% year-over-year, driven by fiber growth despite copper declines.
- Consumer fiber revenue of $505 million, reflecting a 12.7% year-over-year increase primarily due to broadband growth.
- Consumer fiber broadband revenue of $375 million, up 25.8% year-over-year driven by both customer and ARPU growth.
- Addition of 85,000 consumer fiber broadband customers, resulting in an 18.3% year-over-year growth.
- Consumer fiber broadband ARPU of $65.18, marking a 6.1% year-over-year increase.
Business and Wholesale results for the first quarter of 2024 include:
- Business and Wholesale revenue of $659 million, stable year-over-year, with fiber growth offsetting copper declines.
- Business and Wholesale fiber revenue of $300 million, up 6.8% year-over-year driven by data growth despite voice declines.
- Addition of 3,000 Business and Wholesale fiber broadband customers, reflecting an 11.9% year-over-year growth.
- Business and Wholesale fiber broadband ARPU of $98.40, down 3.5% year-over-year.
Regarding capital structure, as of March 31, 2024, Frontier had total liquidity of $2.6 billion. This included cash and short-term investments totaling approximately $1.5 billion, along with available borrowing capacities on its revolving credit facility and variable funding notes facility.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2024, Frontier reaffirmed all operational and financial expectations. These include Adjusted EBITDA of $2.20 to $2.25 billion, fiber passing additions of 1.3 million, cash capital investment ranging from $3.00 to $3.20 billion, cash taxes of approximately $20 million, net cash interest payments of approximately $750 million, and pension and OPEB expenses and contributions.
