Verizon offered better-than-expected guidance for 2022.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Verizon Communications delivered as-expected results for the 2021 fourth quarter on Tuesday morning, and management added guidance for 2022 that didn’t rock the boat either.
Verizon stock (ticker: VZ) slipped 1% in morning trading to $52.42, versus a 2.4% decline for the S&P 500 and a 1.9% slide for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Verizon reported $1.11 in earnings per share for the last three months of 2021. Adjusted for one-time costs and benefits including pension charges and early debt redemption, Verizon earned $1.31 per share, up 8% year over year and narrowly exceeding Wall Street’s $1.28 consensus.
Verizon’s fourth-quarter revenue came in at $34.1 billion, down about 2% and matching analysts’ estimate. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, was $11.8 billion—again right in line with forecasts—and net income was $4.7 billion. Both of those profit measures were about flat from the same period a year earlier.
In 2022, Verizon management expects its wireless service revenue to be up 9% to 10%, or at least 3% when adjusting for the addition of TracFone. The company guided to overall service revenue growth of around 3% on Tuesday, or between 1% and 1.5% adjusting for the TracFone and Verizon Media Group transactions. Those revenue targets are both above Wall Street’s numbers.
Management also said Tuesday they expect adjusted Ebitda growth of 2% to 3% and adjusted earnings per share of $5.40 to $5.55 in 2022, which would be up from $5.39 last year. Analysts’ consensus estimate before Verizon’s fourth-quarter report was for $5.36 in adjusted earnings per share in 2022.
Verizon will host an investor day on March 3.
Verizon stock had lost about 5% after dividends over the past year through Monday’s close, versus a 16% return for the S&P 500. AT&T stock had lost close to 3% and T-Mobile’s had shed about 19%.
Write to Nicholas Jasinski at [email protected]
