Verizon released its latest earnings report before opening bell this morning, posting adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share on $32.34 billion in revenue. Analysts were looking for 89 cents per share in earnings and $32.11 billion in revenue.
Verizon’s earnings per share decline
GAAP earnings per share declined to $1.10 from $1.32 in the year-ago quarter. The company’s wireline revenue declined 3.1% year over year to $7.8 billion, which was in line with consensus.
The retail postpaid churn rate for the fourth quarter rose to 1.1% from 0.96% in the same quarter the previous year. Verizon added 591,000 retail postpaid subscribers during the fourth quarter. The number of retail connections rose 1.9% year over year to 114.2 million. The retail postpaid phone churn rate was again below 0.9%, marking the seventh quarter in a row below that mark. Phone activations on device payment plans rose to approximately 77% in the quarter, compared to 70% in the previous quarter.
The company added 68,000 Fios Internet customers, 21,000 Fios Video customers for a total Fios revenue growth rate of 4.4% in the fourth quarter.
“In the fourth quarter we expanded our customer base in highly competitive wireless and broadband markets,” Verizon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam said in a statement. “This capped a year in which we delivered solid results and returned value to shareholders, including $9.3 billion in dividends. We enter 2017 with confidence, based on our investments in next-generation networks and the new capabilities we have acquired. Our goal is to continue to earn our customers’ loyalty every day in a rapidly expanding mobile-first digital world.”
Verizon also said this morning that it is cutting 155 jobs at go90.
Verizon guides for 2017
Verizon management expects this year’s revenue to be “fairly consistent” with where it stood in 2016. The consensus estimate currently stands at $126.5 billion, which implies a growth rate of 0.4% for the full year.
Shares of Verizon pulled back by as much as 2.84% to $50.92 in premarket trades this morning.
