Shenandoah Telecom Co 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Thank you, Victor. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. The purpose of today's call is to review Shenandoah's results for the third quarter of 2026. Our results were announced in a press release distributed this morning. In addition, we filed our Form 10-Q with the SEC. The presentation we will review is available on the investor page of our website at investor.shentel.com. An audio replay of this call will be available later today with details included in the press release announcing this call. With us today are Ed McKay, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Volk, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Please turn to slide 2, which contains our safe harbor disclaimer.

This call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. We encourage you to review the detailed discussions of risk factors in our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations and are not guarantees of future performance. You should not place undue reliance on them. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or raise any forward-looking statements or revise any forward-looking statements. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP measures, reconciliations, and additional information are included in today's release and presentation. With that, I will turn the call over to Ed. Go ahead, Ed. Customers, advancing our major construction programs toward completion, and converting revenue growth into stronger Adjusted EBITDA growth.

For the third quarter, Glo Fiber surpassed 500,000 passings, an important milestone as we move closer to completing our planned expansion. We added 8,600 Glo Fiber data customers, a record quarter for net additions, and ended the quarter with approximately 109,000 data customers, up 32% year over year. Our fiber businesses continue to gain scale, with combined Glo Fiber and commercial fiber revenue growing 19.5% year over year and representing 52% of consolidated revenues. Total revenue was $93.9 million, up 4.6% year over year, while Adjusted EBITDA increased 11.8% to $33.2 million. The higher rate of Adjusted EBITDA growth reflects the operating leverage we're beginning to realize from continued growth in our fiber businesses. I think it is also important to recognize how Shentel's business is evolving relative to other broadband providers. While many traditional cable operators are navigating broadband subscriber declines, we continue to add customers at a strong pace.

More than half of our revenue now comes from our growing fiber businesses. With our major network expansion substantially complete by year-end, we believe we are uniquely positioned to convert that growth into expanding margins and positive free cash flow starting in 2027. Turning to slide 5, our integrated network now includes more than 20,000 fiber route miles across 8 states and approximately 755,000 total broadband passings. At quarter end, Glo Fiber passed approximately 501,000 homes and businesses, including 25,000 added during the third quarter. We remain on track to substantially complete our planned Glo Fiber expansion in 2026 and now expect to pass approximately 517,000 homes and businesses by the end of the year. As shown on slide 6, Glo Fiber customer growth accelerated in the third quarter with a record 8,600 data net additions, up 48% from the third quarter of 2025.

Our 5-year price guarantee and expansion of our door-to-door sales channel have been key drivers of this growth. Over the past 12 months, we have added more than 26,000 new data customers and 30,000 total RGUs. We ended the third quarter with more than 127,000 Glo Fiber revenue generating units, up 31% compared to the prior year. Moving to slide 7, broadband data penetration reached 21.7%, increasing 68 basis points sequentially and 108 basis points year-over-year. Over the past 12 months, we released approximately 100,000 passings to sales, creating a larger base for continued customer growth. Penetration trends for Glo Fiber expansion markets are shown on slide 8. Our older cohorts continue to increase penetration, with passings launched in 2019 and 2020 now averaging 38.5%, exceeding our medium-term target of 37%. In addition to providing the fastest speeds in our markets, we remain focused on delivering outstanding local customer service.

As shown on slide 9, our annual Glo Fiber customer satisfaction survey produced an outstanding net promoter score of 58. We continue to rank among broadband industry leaders in both customer satisfaction and retention, with average monthly churn of just 1.1% over the past 12 months. Broadband data average revenue per user for the third quarter was down slightly, both sequentially and year-over-year, to just under $76. The 1% year-over-year decline was consistent with our expectations following the introduction of our 5-year price guarantee plans a year ago. We continue to have success moving customers up the rate card and differentiating Glo Fiber with faster speeds than our competitors. Demand for higher speed products remains strong, with more than 83% of new residential customers selecting speeds of 1 gig or higher in the third quarter, including 20% choosing 2 gig service and 5% choosing 5 gig service.

Our commercial fiber business is highlighted on slide 10. In the third quarter, incremental monthly sales bookings exceeded 185,000, driven by strong demand across commercial and enterprise customers, including wireless carriers and wholesale customers. Our service delivery team installed 178,000 in new monthly revenue in the quarter, and our average monthly compression and disconnect churn remained low, averaging 0.5% over the last 12 months. On slide 11, incumbent broadband markets ended the quarter with more than 110,000 broadband data customers, down less than 2% year-over-year. The decline in total RGUs continued to be driven by video customer losses as customers shift to streaming services. Total broadband passings in our incumbent markets increased slightly during the quarter, and we expect to complete the government grant subsidized fiber passings by the end of 2026.

As shown on slide 12, our 23,000 subsidized passings completed in recent years, predominantly with fiber, have reached aggregate data penetration of 43%. The 2023 cohorts are averaging more than 60%, with the oldest cohort approaching 72%. These results demonstrate strong customer demand across these previously unserved areas. We expect overall penetration to reach approximately 65% over the next few years, representing roughly 5,000 incremental customers on our superior fiber network. Moving to slide 13, broadband data monthly churn increased modestly in the third quarter to 1.76%. The increase was driven primarily by a combination of wired broadband competition and softer demand in some of our more rural markets, where inflation continues to pressure household budgets. Broadband data ARPU declined 3% year-over-year to approximately $80. Our focus this year has been on modernizing our offerings in these rural markets to better meet customer needs.

We saw churn improve in September and expect both churn and ARPU to gradually stabilize over the coming quarters as we make additional changes to our rate card and product offerings to maximize customer lifetime value. I want to thank our employees for their continued dedication to serving our customers and executing on our fiber expansion strategy. Glo Fiber's successful growth over the past several years reflects the collective efforts of our entire team and builds on Shentel's proud legacy. Jim, I'll turn it over to you to review our financial results.

Thank you, Ed, and good morning, everyone. I will begin on slide 15 with our third quarter financial results. Revenues increased 4.6% year-over-year to $93.9 million. Glo Fiber expansion market revenue grew to $6.9 million or 32.2%, driven by a 31.8% increase in data subscribers and relatively stable year-over-year data ARPU. Commercial fiber revenue grew to $1.2 million or 5.9%. This growth was driven by recurring revenue growth in the enterprise and carrier verticals. Combined, Glo Fiber and commercial fiber revenue grew 19.5% and represented 52% of consolidated revenue. We expect strong fiber revenue growth to continue, reaching approximately 60% of consolidated revenue by 2028. Incumbent broadband markets revenue declined to $2.8 million, primarily due to lower video revenue from a 13% decline in video RGUs as customers continue to switch to streaming video services, as well as lower data revenues, due primarily to a 3% decline in data ARPU.

RLEC revenue declined to $1.1 million, primarily due to lower DSL revenue from a 35% decline in DSL RGUs and lower government support revenues. We have successfully migrated about 4,500 DSL customers to our recently constructed broadband internet service in our Virginia and Ohio telephone markets since 2023. We expect DSL customer base to stabilize after we migrate the remaining 600 DSL customers in the next year or so. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $3.5 million or 11.8% to $33.2 million. Revenue grew to $4.1 million, partially offset by $600,000 in higher operating expenses. Incremental Adjusted EBITDA margin was an outstanding 85%, driven by the high margin Glo Fiber revenue growth. Compared to the same periods in 2025, Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 200 basis points in the third quarter and 300 basis points year to date.

We expect Adjusted EBITDA margins to expand another 300 to 400 basis points in 2027, driven by continued high margin Glo Fiber revenue growth and a full year of operating expense savings from the previously announced reduction in force that will be completed in December. Turning to slide 16, we are reiterating our 2026 operating guidance. We continue to expect revenues of $370 million-$377 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $131 million-$136 million. For our capital expenditures outlook, we are increasing our guidance to a range of $255 million-$275 million from our prior guidance of $220 million-$250 million. The primary drivers of the increase are twofold. One, we expect to construct 7,000 additional Glo Fiber passings by year-end, bringing total to approximately 517,000 from 510,000. Two, the timing of government grant receipts will likely extend into 2027, which will result in higher net CapEx for 2026.

Please note that our prior CapEx guidance was based upon net capital expenditures. On slide 17, we invested $215 million in capital expenditures during the first nine months of 2026 and collected $22 million in government grants, resulting in net capital expenditures of $193 million. Net capital expenditures declined 9% from the first nine months of 2025. As of September 30th, we are 97% complete with our Glo Fiber expansion and 99% complete with our incumbent broadband expansion, and we expect to substantially complete the remaining construction by year-end. I'd now like to update you on our liquidity and debt maturities on slide 18. As of September 30th, we had $760 million in outstanding debt. We have no debt maturities until 2029, and 75% of our debt is fixed rate, providing meaningful protection from potential increases in short-term interest rates.