T-Mobile reports Q4 results: ‘we had our best growth year ever’

T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS) reported market-beating earnings for its fiscal Q4 and gave solid guidance for 2022 on Wednesday, resulting in a 10% increase in the stock price after-hours.

Important points in T-Mobile’s Q4 earnings report

T-Mobile earned 34 cents per share in the fourth quarter; a sharp decline from last year’s 60 cents per share that executives said was related to the merger with Sprint. The telecom giant noted $20.8 billion in revenue, up 5.5% YoY.

According to FactSet, analysts had expected a much lower 13 cents of per-share earnings but a slightly higher $21.1 billion in revenue. Free cash flow printed at $1.10 billion.

T-Mobile added 844,000 net postpaid phone subscribers in the recent quarter to end the year with 2.9 million postpaid phone subscribers; still behind AT&T by more than a quarter-million but well above Verizon’s number. On CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, CEO Mike Sievert said:

Guidance for the full financial year

For fiscal 2022, T-Mobile expects 5.0 million to 5.5 million net additions in postpaid customers versus analysts at 5.2 million, as per the earnings press release.

The wireless network operator forecasts up to $27.5 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $7.1 billion to $7.6 billion in free cash flow. In comparison, experts had called for $27.9 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $8.1 billion in FCF.

T-Mobile, however, is known to be conservative with its future outlook. According to CEO Sievert, T-Mobile is ahead of its competitors in 5G. He added: