Verizon misses on revenue and profit for Q4
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 30 January 2019

Despite adding twice as many new wireless subscribers as expected in its fourth quarter, Verizon still missed quarterly revenue estimates.

The US comms giant, which has 118 million wireless customers, said it added a net 653,000 post-paid phone subscribers during the fourth quarter, compared to analyst expectations of 355,600.

However, total operating revenue rose just 1% to $34.28 billion in the fourth quarter, missing the average analyst estimate of $34.44 billion. Profit fell to $1.94 billion, or 47 cents per share, in the quarter, down from $18.78 billion, or $4.56 per share, a year earlier. A year ago it benefitted from a one-time $16.8 billion windfall from the US tax overhaul; but taking that out, this quarter’s profit still represents a significant drop.

Part of the issue is the loss of 46,000 FiOS video subscribers during the quarter, more than the 29,000 it lost last year. Also, revenue for the Verizon Media Group (formerly known as Oath ), which includes struggling Yahoo and AOL, was $2.1 billion during the quarter, which is down 5.8% from the prior year.

The company forecast that adjusted earnings per share for this year would be similar to 2018, and that it expected low-single-digit percentage growth for total full-year revenue. Verizon also said that it would increase 2019’s capital spending to somewhere between $17 billion to $18 billion (up from $16.7 billion in capital spending last year), including funding the ongoing commercial launch of its 5G wireless.