Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Beats EPS Consensus By A Penny

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Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) posted strong profits for the December quarter this morning, coming in slightly ahead of Wall Street  estimates. The phone and Internet provider posted earnings of 66 cents per share on revenue of $31.07 billion. Analysts had been expecting the company to report earnings per share of 65 cents on revenue of $31.02 billion. Shares didn’t move much in premarket trading after the report.

In the same quarter a year ago, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) posted losses of $1.93 billion because of financial headwinds from Hurricane Sandy and pension expenses.

Verizon posts strong increases in wireless

According to this morning’s report from Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), the company saw an 8% increase year over year in wireless service revenues and a 7.5% increase in retail service revenues. The company’s wireless operating margin was 29.5%, and its EBITDA margin was 47% on service revenues on a non-GAAP basis.

The company saw 1.7 million retail net additions, excluding acquisitions and adjustments. It reported 1.6 million retail postpaid net additions and a low retail postpaid churn rate of .96%. Verizon also saw 102.8 million total retail connections and 96.8 million total retail postpaid connections. In addition, the carrier reported now having 4G LTE service available to almost 305 million people in over 500 U.S. markets.

Total revenues for Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)’s wireless division were $21.1 billion during the quarter, a 5.7% increase. Service revenues were $17.7 billion, an 8% year over year increase and the firth quarter in a row of at least 8% growth. Retail service revenues increased 7.5% to $17 billion.

Verizon reports solid wireline results

In Verizon’s wireline division, the company reported a 6.4% increase in consumer revenues and a 10.8% increase in average revenue per consumer user. It also posted a 15.6% year over year increase in revenues from FiOS, as well as 126,000 FiOS Internet and 92,000 FiOS Video net additions during the December quarter.

Consumer revenues for the division were $3.8 billion, a 6.4% increase compared with the same quarter a year ago. Consumer average revenue per user for the division rose 10.8% to $117.06. FiOS consumer revenues made up 73% of Verizon’s total consumer revenues and grew 14.9%.

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