Verizon Communications (VZ - Free Verizon Stock Report), the telecommunications giant and Dow-30 component, has reported third-quarter earnings of $1.22 a share, two cents above our estimate and an impressive 24% jump relative to the year-ago result, on a 2.8% top-line improvement. And investors have taken notice of the company's good fortune, with Verizon stock up about 3% on the news.
As is usually the case, Verizon Wireless was the fair-haired boy during the September interim, with the division reporting a 6.5% increase in third-quarter revenues, the fourth time the company has reported year-over-year wireless revenue growth in two years. What's more, the percentage of phone activations on device payment plans was 83%, compared to 78% in the same period last year. In addition, service revenues, which had been declining earlier in the year, grew 0.8% year over year in the September quarter. VZ Wireless added 515,000 retail postpaid net additions during the interim (compared to 603,000 such connections this time last year), bringing Verizon Wireless' total number of retail connections to 116.9 million, up 1.4% year over year.
Separately, total revenues for the Wireline division's FiOS fiber-optic-based services were up 1.5% year over year, thanks to decent demand for high-quality broadband service. Truth be told though, the division added 54,000 FiOS Internet connections, yet lost 63,000 FiOS Video connections during the September quarter, the result of the ongoing shift away from traditional linear video offerings.
The company looks a bit different than it did this time last year. To wit, in late June, the company named Chief Technology Officer Hans Vestberg as its new CEO. Mr. Vestberg joined Verizon just over a year ago, after a six-year stint at communications equipment maker Ericsson. At Verizon, he headed a group responsible for building out the company's fiber network infrastructure, and his promotion became effective August 1st. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the company recently announced that it will begin to roll out its next-generation 5G network during the final stanzas of this year.
In 2017, Verizon announced a goal of achieving $10 billion in total cash savings over the next four years. This initiative, which includes zero-based budgeting, has yielded approximately $1.3 billion of cumulative cash savings on a year-to-date basis, and is on schedule to meet management's goals, which would certainly augur well for the company's bottom line.
In closing, Verizon is on track to report 2018 earnings of about $4.65 a share, with a modest increase likely in the cards for next year. This blue-chip stock remains a good choice for conservative portfolios, thanks to its impressive dividend yield (almost twice that of the Value Line median, thanks, in part, to the recent 2.1% uptick in VZ's quarterly dividend payout), Highest (1) Safety rank, and alluring capital-appreciation potential through the early years of the coming decade.
About The Company:Verizon Communications was created by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE in June of 2000. It is a diversified telecom company with a network that covers a population of about 298 million and provides service to nearly 98.2 million. In the decade or so, it has acquired MCI (1/06), Alltel (1/09) and Yahoo! (6/17). The company is also the largest provider of print and on-line directory information. Has a wireline presence in 28 states & Washington, D.C. and a wireless presence in every U.S. state & D.C., as well as operations in 19 countries.
- Kenneth A. Nugent
