Following up on a disappointing second quarter, GTT Communications reported a loss of $26.2 million in its third quarter compared to a net loss of $23.4 million in the same quarter a year ago.
On Tuesday, McLean, Virginia-based GTT posted a loss of 46 cents a share on revenues of $420 million, both of which missed Wall Street expectations. Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research had estimated a loss of 20 cents per share and revenue of $427 in the quarter.
GTT's second quarter sales were $434 million, which was below Wall Street consensus estimated of $448 million. GTT lost 59 cent per share in the second quarter while analysts were projecting a loss of 5 cents per share.
Dating back two years, GTT has closed and integrated 10 acquisitions, including its $2.3 billion deal to buy Interoute last year. Those deals have nearly quadrupled the size of the company, but along the way GTT has built up $3.2 billion of long-term debt.
In order to reduce its debt load, GTT is looking to offload pan-European fiber assets, subsea transatlantic fiber and data center infrastructure that the company acquired as part of the Interoute and Hibernia acquisitions.
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GTT CEO Richard Calder said on the company's second quarter earnings call in August that GTT was planning on increasing its number of sales reps to 400 by the end of this year and 500 by the end of next year. Calder said that GTT needed a bigger sales force to drive a larger volume of sales and installs to outpace its churn.
By noon on Tuesday, GTT's shares had dropped to $7.08 per share after closing at $8.46. Overall, GTT's shares have dropped 64% since the start of this year and 75% over the last 12 months.