[cnxvideo id=”507732″ placement=”ros”]Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reported its fourth-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday. The company posted $0.86 in earnings per share (EPS) on $32.34 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters called for EPS of $0.89 and $32.08 in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $0.89 in EPS and revenue of $34.25 billion.
During the fourth quarter, Verizon reported 591,000 retail postpaid net additions. At year-end 2016, Verizon had 114.2 million retail connections, a 1.9% year-over-year increase. Verizon’s retail postpaid connections base grew 2.1% to 108.8 million, and retail prepaid connections totaled 5.4 million.
As for the Wireline segment, the company added a net of 68,000 Fios Internet connections and 21,000 Fios Video connections. Customer demand for Custom TV continues to remain strong. At year-end, Verizon had 5.7 million Fios Internet connections and 4.7 million Fios Video connections.
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In terms of guidance, the company expects to see 2017 consolidated revenues on an organic basis to be fairly consistent with 2016, as well as full-year 2017 EPS trends to be similar to consolidated revenue trends. The consensus estimates are $4.01 in EPS and $126.3 billion in revenue for 2017.
Also looking ahead, Verizon expects its acquisition of XO Communications to close in first-quarter 2017 and its sale of data centers to Equinix to close in second-quarter 2017. Regarding the Yahoo acquisition, Verizon continues to work with Yahoo to assess the impact of data breaches.
Lowell McAdam, chairman and CEO of Verizon, commented:
We are positioning Verizon for future growth and continued sustainable shareholder value. In the fourth quarter we expanded our customer base in highly competitive wireless and broadband markets. 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.
On the books, Verizon’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $2.88 billion at the end of the quarter, versus $4.82 billion at the end of the same period of last year.
Shares of Verizon closed Monday at $52.41, with a consensus analyst price target of $53.68 and a 52-week trading range of $46.01 to $56.95. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down nearly 3% at $50.93 in early trading indications Tuesday.
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