Verizon beats Wall Street estimates in the fiscal first quarter

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reported its financial results for the fiscal first quarter on Wednesday that beat Wall Street estimates. Chief Executive Hans Vestberg joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday. Commenting on the biggest drivers of growth in Q1, he said:

“I would say our differentiated strategy is really working right now. In this quarter, all our businesses grew; Verizon media group grew over 10%, business and consumer groups also grew, resulting in a 4% overall growth. So, finally, we have several vectors of growth that are all happening at the same time.”

Verizon’s Q1 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

Verizon said that its net income in the first quarter came in at £3.88 billion that translates to 91 pence per share. In the comparable quarter of last year, its net income was capped at a lower £3.09 billion, or 72 pence per share.

On an adjusted basis, the American multinational earned 94 pence per share in Q1 versus the year-ago figure of 90 pence per share. Verizon valued its total revenue in the recent quarter at £23.62 billion, compared to £22.68 billion last year.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to post £23.33 billion of revenue in the first quarter. Their estimate for adjusted per-share earnings was capped at 93 pence per share. In the prior quarter (Q4), Verizon had reported £3.45 billion of net income.

Phone net losses and retail post-paid net losses attributed to the telecom conglomerate’s consumer business stood at 225 thousand and 326 thousand, respectively. Retail phone churn, Verizon added, came in at 0.77% in Q1. Retain post-paid churn, on the other hand, registered at 0.97%.

In separate news from the United States, Nasdaq Inc. reported better than expected quarterly profit on Wednesday.

Other prominent figures in Verizon’s earnings report

Other notable figures in Verizon’s earnings report include a 1.5% annualised growth in its consumer wireless service revenue. Capital expenditures printed at £3.23 billion in the recent quarter.

For fiscal 2021, Verizon forecasts at least 2% growth in service and other revenue and up to £3.70 of adjusted EPS. The New York-based company expects up to £13.28 billion of capital spending this year.

Verizon shares that you can learn to buy online here are more than 1% down year-to-date in the stock market. At the time of writing, the NYSE-listed company is valued at £172.83 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 13.54.