Sprint released its second fiscal quarter earnings report before opening bell this morning, posting losses of 15 cents per share on $7.89 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting losses of 7 cents per share and revenue of $8.12 billion for the quarter. In last year’s second quarter, the mobile carrier reported losses of 19 cents per share and revenue of $8.03 billion.
Sprint improves churn rate
Adjusted EBITDA increased 45% to $2 billion. Service revenue fell from $7.4 billion last year to $6.9 billion this year, while equipment revenue edged slightly higher from $1 billion to $1.1 billion. Sprint reported a 6% decline in net operating revenues due to customers shifting to rate plans with device financing options.
Also losses in postpaid phone customers resulted in lower revenues for wireless services. Wireless service revenues and installment plan billings and lease revenue rose slightly year over year. Sprint said it reduced expenses enough to more than offset the decline in service revenues.
Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) added 1.06 million wireless subscribers during the quarter, compared to 675,000 in last year’s second quarter. The company said it was the first to post an improvement in postpaid churn rate from the June to the September quarter, with the churn rate coming in at 1.54%. Total net adds rose by almost 80% to 1.1 million, with Sprint adding almost 4 million subscribers over the last four quarters.
Sprint offers disappointing guidance
Sprint management said they expect adjusted EBITDA for the full year to be at the low end of their previously provided guidance of between $7.2 billion and $7.6 billion, excluding impacts from sales of leased devices. They also said they expect to continue reducing costs. Management expects to spend about $5 billion on capital expenditures in the current fiscal year, excluding any impacts from the possible sale of leased mobile devices.
As of this writing, shares of Sprint were down 4.62% at $4.64 per share in premarket trading.
