Windstream, Car-Mart see quarterly earnings slip

Little Rock-based Windstream Corp. and Bentonville-based America’s Car Mart both saw a slip in quarterly earnings.

WINDSTREAM
Windstream saw it’s fourth quarter and full year earnings slip, primarily due to integration costs of its year-long acquisition spree of a variety of entities.

The telecom and broadband provider reported fourth quarter net income of $72.4 million, down roughly 4% from one year ago. Revenues for Windstream rose to $981 million, a 30% increase from last year’s fourth quarter.

For the full year, Windstream earnings topped $310.7 million, down 7%, on sales of $3.71 billion, a 24% increase from 2009.

Windstream has been involved in a series of acquisitions for more than a year. During 2010, it announced 4 deals that expanded the company’s footprint into new markets and diversified its offerings in broadband infrastructure and data holdings. It also recommitted to keeping its corporate headquarters in Arkansas earlier in 2010.

"2010 was an incredible year for Windstream, and I am very pleased with all that we accomplished," Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner said in the earnings statement. "We continued to improve our top-line trends and achieved our revenue and cash flow goals for the year. Our team did a fantastic job executing our business plan while successfully integrating the four companies we acquired during the year."

Windstream shares (NYSE: WIN) were below $13, or about 3% lower, in Friday (Feb. 18) morning trading. During the past 52 weeks the share price has ranged from a $14.40 high to a $6.02 low.

CAR MART
America’s Car-Mart blamed the timing of tax refunds for a slip in third quarter earnings, but says it expects to rebound in the coming quarter.

The "buy-here, pay here" used car dealer reported third quarter net income of $5.69 million compared to $6.28 million one year ago. Revenues for Car-Mart increased 10.5% to $92.6 million during the quarter that ended Jan. 31, 2011 with same-store sales up a solid 5.3%.

"Our solid top line growth continues and would have been even stronger during the quarter absent the negative effects from the timing of income tax refund money in our markets," Car-Mart CEO Hank Henderson said in the statement. "Had the timing of refunds been the same as prior years we feel that we would have seen much higher sales volumes during the third quarter. The delay is expected to push out some sales into our fourth quarter. Based on sales levels thus far in February this appears in fact to be the case."

The company’s credit losses have come back down and were described as "basically flat" compared to last year’s comparable quarter.

Car-Mart has been busy expanding during its current fiscal year. It has added 7 new locations and vowed to open "several more" before its fiscal year-end in April.

"The contributions of these new locations will be an important factor in keeping us on our projected growth targets. We are excited about our future and the tremendous opportunities in front of us to move into new markets and continue to serve existing markets the Car-Mart way," Henderson said.

Car-Mart shares (NASDAQ: CRMT) were around $24.40 in Friday morning trading, up less than 1%. During the past 52 weeks the price of the thinly traded shares has ranged from a $30.10 high to a $20.40 low.