Level 3 Crows About Another Good Quarter

Level 3 Communications Inc. enjoyed a 16 percent rise in its stock price Wednesday on news of the company’s higher quarterly profit and revenue.

Shares of the service provider closed up 15.95 percent yesterday, at $43.03, after it reported net income of $112 million on $1.61 billion in revenue for the first three months of this year. That compares to a year-earlier loss of $78 million. And much of the first-quarter success came from Level 3’s enterprise division, which is channel-centric.

“We started out the year with another good quarter,” said Jeff Storey, president and CEO of Level 3. “We continue to capture market share by helping enterprises optimize their cost structure while moving to newer, more scalable technologies.”

Meantime, enterprise core network services revenue grew 11 percent year-over-year. That’s the ninth consecutive quarter of growth, said Sunit Patel, executive vice president and CFO of Level 3.

“We saw strength … in part due to turning up service ahead of schedule and better-than-expected usage revenue,” he said.

And at least one analyst is on board, feeling good about the numbers.

“Overall, we are encouraged by the results and believe the long-term turnaround thesis is playing out,” noted Canaccord Genuity’s Greg Miller.