By
Steve Muchoki
December 14th, 2023
Verizon Communications closed the third quarter with 10.3 million broadband subscribers, a 21 percent increase YoY, thus representing its consecutive fourth quarter of net additions.
Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ), a holding company that engages in entertainment products and communication services, announced its Q3 2023 earnings results on Tuesday, October 24. According to the announcement, Verizon reported a total operating revenue of $33.3 billion and an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of about $1.22 during the third quarter.
As a result, the company beat Wall Street’s revenue forecasts of about $33.2 billion and an adjusted EPS of around $1.18 according to a survey conducted by LSEG. Following the strong third-quarter earnings results, Verizon shares had one of the best-performing days, after closing Tuesday trading at $34.30, up about 9.27 percent from the day’s opening price.
Verizon Q3 2023 Earnings
During the three months, Verizon announced that its revenue was largely bolstered by a notable adoption of its wireless services. Furthermore, the company saw its wireless revenue spike by 2.9 percent year over year to $19.3 billion. The company recorded about 100k postpaid phone net additions and around 581k net additions in retail postpaid. As for the broadband net additions, Verizon announced about 434k more during the third quarter, which represented the fourth consecutive addition. Consequently, Verizon now has about 10.2 million total broadband subscribers, which include around 2.7 million from fixed wireless services. As for the Fios internet users, Verizon announced that it added a total of about 72k customers during the third quarter.
“We continued to make steady progress in the third quarter with a clear focus on growing wireless service revenue, delivering healthy consolidated adjusted EBITDA and increasing free cash flow,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg, noted. “Our financial discipline, combined with our healthy balance sheet, enabled us to increase our dividend for the 17th consecutive year, which is the longest current streak of dividend increases in the U.S. telecom industry.”
However, the company announced that its consumer revenue came in at $25.3 billion during the third quarter, a decline of about 2.3 percent from a year ago. As for the business sector, the company reported a revenue of about $7.5 billion during the third quarter, which was a decline of about 4 percent from the same time a year ago. Nonetheless, Verizon recorded an increase of about 2.9 percent YoY in its business wireless services sector, which was driven by net additions and pricing changes.
For the entire year, Verizon expects its total wireless revenue to grow by a margin of between 2.5 percent and 4.5 percent. Worth noting that Verizon expects to report a free cash flow of above $18 billion, which is $1 billion higher than the previously issued guidance.