Verizon released its Q1 2016 results that met earnings per share (EPS) expectations but missed on revenue estimates offered up by analysts including those from Thomson Reuters. Q1 EPS was $1.06 on revenue of $32.71 billion, according to the company. EPS was reportedly an increase of 3.9 percent compared with Q1 2015.
The ongoing strike by nearly 40,000 of its wireline workers had the service provider warning that Q2 results could be affected. One striker took the occasion to blast the company.
“Despite making $39 billion profits over the last three years and $4.43 billion in the first quarter of 2016 alone, the company is refusing to settle a fair contract and continues its efforts to offshore jobs to the Philippines, Mexico and other locations,” Brooklyn-based Verizon field technician Anthony Finocchio says in a statement. He was among those who walked off the job last week.
“Rather than investing in good jobs here at home, Verizon refuses to make Fios available to thousands of people in towns and cities throughout the East Coast and is embarking on a questionable path to acquire troubled Yahoo and other companies,“ Finocchio says. “My co-workers and I want nothing more than to help our customers get the service and quality they want and deserve and provide for our own families.”
In the wireline segment, Verizon reports that it Fios fiber-optic-based services remains the driver of revenue growth and represents about 81 percent of consumer revenues. Verizon also says it added 98,000 net new Fios Internet connections and 36,000 net new Fios video connections in the first quarter. Total Fios revenues grew 5 percent, to $3.5 billion, comparing first-quarter 2016 with first-quarter 2015, including consumer Fios revenue growth of 4.7 percent, according to the company.
Also in Q1 2016, consumer revenues were reported as $4.0 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent compared with the same quarter in 2015.
By the end of first-quarter 2016, about 78 percent of consumer Fios Internet customers subscribed to data speeds of 50 megabits per second or higher. Customer demand was said to have remained strong for Custom TV, which represented about 38 percent of Fios video sales in the quarter, Verizon reports.
