Sprint Continues to Add More Customers

Sprint Corp. reported that its loss narrowed while revenue rose as the wireless carrier detailed its preliminary results for its second fiscal quarter, which ended in September.

The company said net postpaid phone subscriber additions more than doubled to 347,000 from the prior quarter, and surged from 62,000 a year earlier. Still, overall postpaid net additions were 344,000, down from 553,000 a year ago.

Shares of the Overland Park, Kan., company, up 85% this year, fell 3.1% to $6.71 in late morning trading Tuesday as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization also missed expectations.

During July, the four largest U.S. wireless carriers turned in quarterly results that suggested that prices have been stabilizing after years of slashing prices, offering big promotions and undercutting each other to attract new subscribers.

In a regulatory filing Tuesday, Sprint said its preliminary net revenue rose 3% to $8.25 billion for the three-month period ended Sept. 30, while wireless net revenue increased nearly 5% to $7.85 billion.

The company expects to post a net loss of $142 million, compared with a year-earlier net loss of $585 million. The latest period included an after-tax noncash gain of $218 million related to some spectrum swaps with other carriers.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a net loss of $340.2 million on revenue of $8.02 billion.

Adjusted Ebitda rose 17% to $2.35 billion, but was shy of analysts' expectations for adjusted Ebitda of $2.42 billion.

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 18, 2016 12:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

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