T-Mobile posts Q1 profit, adds 2.2 million new customers
T-Mobile continues to reap the rewards of its aggressive customer acquisition strategy in its fiscal first quarter results.
Tech Earnings
The nation's No. 3 wireless carrier said it added 2.2 million customers to its network during Q1, easily topping analyst estimates of 1.7 million.
T-Mobile also added one million post-paid accounts, which are the most lucrative category of wireless subscribers. The carrier had previously expected branded postpaid customer growth to slow this year.
As for the rest of the numbers, the company reported Q1 net income of $479 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with a loss of $63 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings were 10 cents a share on revenue of $8.6 billion, up 10.6 percent year-over-year.
Wall Street was looking for earnings of 10 cents a share on revenue of $8.43 billion.
The carrier's adjusted EBITDA was $2.7 billion, up 98 percent from a year ago. Postpaid churn was 1.33 percent in the first quarter.
"I can't think of a better way to start off 2016 than by capturing all of the industry's postpaid phone growth -- again," said T-Mobile CEO John Legere. "Our model is working and the business momentum is accelerating across the board."
The company raised its guidance for postpaid net adds from 2.4 million to 3.4 million o 3.2 million to 3.6 million.
In terms of profitability, T-Mobile is predicting $9.7 billion to $10.2 billion in adjusted EBITDA, up from its previous range of $9.1 billion to $9.7 billion. Wall Street is looking for revenue of at least $8.75 billion.
T-Mobile's shares were up just over 2 percent in pre-market trading.