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Rogers Communications reports $593M third-quarter profit, cuts revenue guidance

TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. cut its financial guidance as it reported a profit of $593 million in its latest quarter, compared with $594 million in the same quarter last year.
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Rogers Communications Inc. saw revenue drop to $3.75 billion in the latest quarter compared to the same quarter last year. (Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. cut its financial guidance as it reported a profit of $593 million in its latest quarter, compared with $594 million in the same quarter last year.

The cable and wireless company says it earned $1.14 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $1.15 per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue totalled $3.75 billion, down from nearly $3.77 billion in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Rogers says it earned $622 million or $1.19 per diluted share for the quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $625 million or $1.21 a year ago.

Analysts had estimated $1.31 per share of adjusted earnings with $3.87 billion of revenue, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

In its outlook, Rogers said it now expects its 2019 revenue compared with 2018 to range between a decrease of one per cent and growth of one per cent. That compared with earlier guidance for growth of three to five per cent.

Guidance for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was lowered to growth of three to five per cent compared with earlier expectations for growth of seven to nine per cent.

Capital spending expectations were also cut to between $2.75 billion and $2.85 billion from between $2.85 billion and $3.05 billion.

It was the first full quarter since the Toronto-based company adopted a new pricing model for its wireless services, one that includes unlimited amount of data for a fixed price per month, but uses slower wireless speeds after a monthly cap is exceeded instead of adding overage fees.

Rogers was the first of Canada’s national wireless companies to adopt fixed monthly prices for its wireless data plans but the move has been matched by Bell and Telus. Freedom Mobile — which competes against three national carriers in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, already had similar plans.