T-Mobile Added 8.26 Million Customers in 2015

T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results before markets opened Wednesday. For the quarter, the wireless carrier posted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.34 and revenues of $8.25 billion. That compared with EPS of $0.15 and revenues of $8.15 billion in fourth quarter of 2014. Adjusted EBITDA rose from $1.75 billion to $2.28 billion. Net income totaled $297 million, compared with $101 million in 2014.The consensus estimates called for EPS of $0.15 and revenue of $8.2 billion.

For the full year, T-Mobile posted EPS of $0.82 and $32.05 billion in revenue, compared with EPS of $0.30 and revenues of $29.56 billion in 2014. Analysts were looking for EPS of $0.65 and revenues of $32 billion.

For the full year, T-Mobile posted net additions of 8.26 million customers, compared with net additions of 8.33 million in 2014.

The company reported net branded postpaid customer additions of 917,000 in the fourth quarter and 3.50 million for the year. That’s down from 4.05 million net additions in 2014. Net branded prepaid customer additions totaled 469,000 in the quarter and 1.30 million for the year, up from 1.24 million at the end of 2014. Mobile broadband customer totals ended the year at 999,000, up from 839,000 in December 2014. Wholesale customer addition totaled 2.44 million in 2015 up from 2.20 million in 2014.

In its outlook, T-Mobile said it expects to deliver “strong growth” in adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow in 2016. Adjusted EBITDA is forecast in the range of $9.1 billion to $9.7 billion and capital spending of $4.5 billion to $4.8 billion. The company expects branded postpaid subscriber additions to total 2.4 million to 3.4 million.
[recirclink id=314960]
CEO John Legere said:

T-Mobile is #1 in postpaid phone growth, #1 in service revenue growth, #1 in Adjusted EBITDA growth, not to mention #1 in customer care and #1 in network speed. We set out to change this industry, we’re well on our way and we won’t stop.

A key metric for T-Mobile is its average revenue per user (ARPU). For its branded prepaid customers, ARPU rose slightly from the third quarter, from $47.99 to $48.05. Branded prepaid ARPU rose slightly from the third quarter, from $37.46 to $37.63. Year over year, postpaid ARPU slipped slightly in the fourth quarter from $48.26 and prepaid ARPU rose slightly from $37.51.

T-Mobile’s shares traded up about 4.3% in Wednesday’s premarket session, at $38.00 in a 52-week range of $30.73 to $43.43. The consensus price target for the shares was $46.50 before the report.