Verizon results beat as promotions keep churn in check

Verizon, on a consolidated basis, expects to mitigate 2016 earnings pressures resulting from the sale of high-margin wireline operations to Frontier Communications Corp.

Verizon released its fourth quarter earnings report before opening bell this morning, posting adjusted earnings of 89 cents per share and $34.3 billion in revenue.

Revenue grew 3.2% to $34.25 billion. It wasn’t all flowers and rainbows – Verizon saw decline in its landline business, and revenue per account fell to $148.30, or lower than the Street’s forecast of $149.61 – but all told, the company ended Q4 with a hefty net income of $5.39 billion compared to a year-ago loss of $2.23 billion.

The current fiscal quarter earnings per share estimate is at $0.88 set by the analysts.

Verizon added 99,000 net new Fios internet connections and 20,000 net new Fios video connections in the quarter, taking their respective totals to 7 million and 5.8 million. He also wouldn’t comment on ongoing litigation with the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN division, which sued Verizon previous year claiming the Custom TV bundling strategy violated the media company’s carriage agreement with Verizon.

CEO Lowell McAdam called the results “strong and balanced”, adding that the company had “built and acquired next-generation network capabilities that position the company to be an innovator in the digital-first mobile world in 2016 and beyond”.

Head to the Source link below for the full report.

As a result, the company too came out with seasonal holiday offers like $100 off on some phones while $300 was given as credit to trade in some cases. America’s largest wireless carrier reported better-than-expected revenue, decreased customer turnover, and the addition of more than a million postpaid subscribers. That compares to 1.14% for 2014’s fourth quarter and 1.04% for the year. In 2015, IoT offerings delivered 18% growth in revenue to $690 million.

Verizon’s other segment, wireless, reported total revenues of $23.7 billion in Q4-2015, up 1.2 per cent compared with Q4-2014.

Verizon look poised for a big year in 2016.

Summary: Verizon successfully weathered an ultra-competitive fourth quarter that could have been contentious, which bodes well for the near future as Sprint and T-Mobile continue their aggressive promotions. Over 70 percent of Fios internet customers subscribed to 50 Mbps or faster internet services by the end of the year. Finally, LGT Capital Partners bought a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth $3,882,000. Charter Trust Company’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $5,750,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. In fact, FiOS video penetration was slightly down year-over-year (35.3% versus 35.8%) as Verizon cited greater interest from customers in broadband-only subscriptions.