Sprint Earnings: Strong Quarter, Yet Stock Ticks Lower

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) reported its results for the third quarter. Sprint Nextel offers a range of wireless and wireline communications products and services.

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Sprint Nextel Corporation Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Loss widened to $767 million (26 cents per diluted share) from $301 million (loss of 10 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue: Rose 5.2% to $8.76 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Sprint Nextel Corporation beat the mean analyst estimate of a loss of 50 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $8.73 billion.

Quoting Management: “The Sprint platform performed well, with strong net subscriber additions, record third quarter postpaid and prepaid churn and robust revenue growth, contributing to Adjusted OIBDA* of $1.28 billion even as we continue to invest in Network Vision and position the company for future growth,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “As a result, we believe we will slightly exceed the top of the range of our recently increased Adjusted OIBDA* forecast.”

Key Stats:

The company has now topped analyst estimates for the last four quarters. It beat the mark by 2 cents in the second quarter, by 13 cents in the first quarter, and by 3 cents in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

Revenue has increased for four consecutive quarters. Revenue increased 6.4% to $8.84 billion in the second quarter. The figure rose 5.1% in the first quarter from the year earlier and climbed 5.1% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter.

Looking Forward: Expectations for the company’s next-quarter results are looking up. The average estimate for the fourth quarter is a loss of 52 cents per share, up from a loss of 53 cents a month ago. For the fiscal year, the average estimate has moved from a loss of $1.65 a share to a loss of $1.70 over the last ninety days.

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(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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