NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc on Tuesday reported quarterly revenue that exceeded analyst estimates as phone subscribers grew while tax cuts helped its profits soar, boosting its shares in premarket trading.
The company added 431,000 phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill on a net basis. Analysts at Wells Fargo said in an earlier note that they expected 320,000.
Verizon shares were up 1.03 percent at $54.00 in trading before the U.S. stock market opened.
The No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier said last week a tax-overhaul bill signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump late last year would result in a one-time reduction in net deferred income tax liabilities of about $16.8 billion.
Verizon estimated that the impact of that law to earnings per share for the year ended Dec. 31 was about $4.10.
Net income attributable to Verizon was $18.7 billion, or $4.56 per share, in the fourth quarter through Dec. 31, up considerably from $4.5 billion, or $1.10 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding items such as the impact of the tax law, earnings per share were 86 cents.
Total revenue rose to $34.0 billion from $32.34 billion a year earlier.
According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, analysts expected adjusted earnings per share of 88 cents on revenue of $33.26 billion.
The company expects full-year revenue for 2018 to grow at a low single-digit percentage rate and service revenue growth to turn positive around the end of the year or early in 2019.
It also expects low single-digit percentage growth in adjusted earnings per share, excluding the impact of tax reform and a new accounting standard it has adopted.
(Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
