How Sprint Measures Up to AT&T and Verizon After Earnings

The company gave its outlook for the 2015 fiscal year as expected adjusted EBITDA between $6.5 billion and $6.9 billion and capital expenditures of roughly $5 billion.

During this quarter Sprint had 1.2 million platform net additions, compared to net losses of 383,000 in the same quarter in the previous year. Postpaid net additions contributed 211,000, compared to net losses of 231,000 in the prior year quarter.

Sprint’s prepaid net additions of 546,000 led the industry for second consecutive quarter and compared to net losses of 364,000 last year. Wholesale net additions of 492,000 increased from 212,000.

For comparison purposes, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said in its most recent earnings report that it added a net 411,000 postpaid wireless customers in the quarter, down from 625,000 net additions in the first quarter last year. The company connected a total of 945,000 new devices in the quarter, including 684,000 connected cars.

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Also for its most recent earnings, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reported:

• Wireless total revenues were $22.3 billion, up 6.9% from the first quarter in 2014. This segment had 565,000 retail postpaid net additions, up 4.8% in the same time.
• Wireline total operating revenues were $9.5 billion, down 2.0% from the same quarter in the previous year.
• Verizon added 133,000 net new FiOS Internet connections and 90,000 net new FiOS Video connections. Verizon had totals of 6.7 million FiOS Internet and 5.7 million FiOS Video connections at the end of the first quarter, representing year-over-year increases of 9.4% and 7.9%, respectively.

Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint, commented on earnings:

I am proud of the team for successfully executing the first phase of our strategy to stop the decline in customers. We are now one quarter into the second phase, focusing on attracting more quality customers, retaining our customers through a better customer experience and continuously improving the network. As a result, Sprint platform net additions were the highest in nearly three years, postpaid churn dropped by 46 basis points sequentially, and the network received more awards in major markets, all of which will position the company for profitable growth.

Sprint also noted that its 4G LTE coverage now reaches nearly 280 million people, equaling 87% of U.S. population, which should come in handy with its most recent partnership with Google.

Shares of Sprint shares were up about 2.1% at $5.26 in early trading Tuesday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $7.28 and a 52-week trading range of $3.79 to $9.76.

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