For the full year, the company reported adjusted EPS of $4.00 on revenues of $120.55 billion. A year ago the company reported EPS of $2.31 on $115.85 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates called for EPS of $2.83 and $120.53 billion in revenue.
Verizon expects to close on the acquisition of the stake in Verizon Wireless owned by Vodafone on Feb. 21, which would be immediately accretive to earnings by about 10%.
The company’s CEO said:
Verizon delivered a total return of 18.6 percent to our shareholders in 2013, while attracting more customers than our competitors and improving our financial performance. This included more than 20 percent year-over-year increases in operating cash flow and EPS. In 2014, we look forward to acquiring sole ownership of Verizon Wireless, the best asset in the global wireless industry, and leveraging all our assets to deliver innovative products to customers and more value to shareholders.
Verizon Wireless generated $21.1 billion in fourth-quarter revenues, up 5.7% year-over-year. Postpaid average revenue per account (ARPA) rose 7.1% to $157.21. Wireless operating margin came in at 29.5%. The number of retail postpaid customers grew by 1.7 million in the quarter, bringing Verizon’s total number of retail connections to 102.8 million, up 4.7% compared with the final quarter of 2012.
In the wireline business, revenues increased 6.4% to $3.8 billion in the quarter, with most of the growth coming from the company’s FiOS service. Verizon added 126,000 new customers to its FiOS Internet service and 92,000 to its FiOS video service. FiOS Internet service is up 11.9% compared with the fourth quarter of 2012, and FiOS video service is 11.3% higher.
Verizon did not offer any revenue or earnings guidance, but the consensus estimates for the current quarter call for EPS of $0.86 on revenues of $30.80 billion. For the full year, estimated EPS totals $3.51 on revenues of $125.25 billion.
Shares were up about 0.9% at $48.79 in premarket trading Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $42.34 to $54.31. Prior to this report, Thomson/Reuters had a consensus price target of around $54.04 on the company’s shares.
Competitors AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) were also up in premarket trading.
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