Verizon Profit Meets Expectations, Revenue Beats
Verizon Communicationsreported quarterly earnings in line with forecasts on Thursday, but revenue topped Wall Street's expectations.
After the earnings announcement, the mobile service provider's shares fell in trading before the opening bell. (Click here to get the latest quotes for Verizon.)
Verizon's second-quarter profit rose to $1.83 billion, or 64 cents per share, from $1.61 billion, or 57 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue rose to $28.6 billion from $27.54 billion a year ago, beating analysts' estimates of $28.549 billion.
Verizon added more new subscribers than Wall Street had expected.
Its Verizon Wireless venture with Vodafone Group added 888,000 net new subscribers in the quarter compared with the average expectation for about 666,000 from seven analysts.
The company said it is on track to increase full-year earnings in the double-digit percentage range, implying an increase of at least 10 percent.
Its wireless service margin based on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was 49 percent, ahead of estimates from three analysts for about 47 percent.
The company said it expected profit margins in its wireline business to continue to improve in the second half of the year after increasing in the second quarter from the first quarter.