Verizon's quarterly profit rises 32%
Zelphinium Managing Partner Armando Soto on the earnings season and the outlook for stocks.
April 24 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc reported better-than-expected first-quarter results on Tuesday as the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier lost fewer monthly phone subscribers than feared.
Shares of the company rose 3.4 percent to $50.30 in premarket trading.
Verizon lost 24,000 phone subscribers that pay bills on a monthly basis while analysts expected it to lose 69,000 subscribers, according to financial and data analytics firm FactSet.
Analysts at Jefferies characterized the results as "in-line to modestly better," according to a note sent to clients on Tuesday.
Net income attributable to Verizon rose to $4.55 billion, or $1.11 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31 from $3.45 billion, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.17 per share. Total operating revenue rose to $31.77 billion from $29.81 billion a year earlier.
Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of $1.10 per share and revenue of $31.26 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Verizon’s first-quarter 2018 EPS included approximately 21 cents due to tax reform and accounting changes for revenue recognition.
The company expects savings from tax reform will generate a net $3.5 billion to $4 billion uplift to cash flow from operations in 2018, resulting in an 55 to 65 cent increase in 2018 earnings per share.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Anna Driver)