Verizon Posts Net Loss of 23 Cents Per Share for Q4 2009

Mobile phone carrier Verizon Wireless announced today its financial results for the fourth quarter of the last year, and posted an overall net loss of $653 million for the time frame, or 23 cents per share. The loss is mainly due to workforce reductions, which resulted in $3 billion charges, even if the company has registered strong growth in wireless services for the three months period. During the same quarter the year before the company posted net income of $1.24 billion, or 43 cents a share.

Even so, Verizon has registered 2.2 million total net customer additions for the fourth quarter of the last year, excluding acquisitions and adjustments, something that out paced analysts estimations of only 1 million net customer additions. The carrier also notes that in Q4 it registered 1.2 million retail net customer additions, and that it ended the year 2009 with a number of 87.5 million retail customers, marking an increase of 25 percent when compared to the previous year. The total number of customers was of 91.2 million, a growth of 26.6 percent from year-end 2008.

The leading US wireless carrier also posted revenue of $27.1 billion, up around 10 percent when compared to the last quarter of 2008. The company says that its cash flow from operations totaled $31.6 billion in 2009, an increase of 14.5 percent from the previous year. At the same time, the company says that total revenues went up 22.5 percent when compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, that data revenues went up 45.9 percent in the time frame, and that its retail postpaid churn and total retail churn remained low, at 1.06 percent and 1.44 percent, respectively.

Other highlights of Verizon's Q4 financial results also include:
- Retail service revenues in the quarter totaled $13.2 billion, up 22.5 percent year over year and 5.2 percent on a pro forma basis. Service revenues in the fourth quarter were $13.5 billion, up 22.5 percent and 5.0 percent on a pro forma basis. Total revenues were $15.7 billion, up 22.5 percent year over year and 3.1 percent on a pro forma basis. Full-year revenues were $62.1 billion, up 25.9 percent and 6.1 percent on a pro forma basis.
- Retail service ARPU (average monthly service revenue per user) decreased 2.2 percent year over year and 0.6 percent on a pro forma basis to $50.75. Retail data ARPU increased to $16.24, up 16.1 percent year over year and 20.5 percent on a pro forma basis.
- Wireless operating income margin, adjusted for merger integration and acquisition costs, was 27.3 percent, a decrease of 2.4 percentage points year over year and 1.7 percentage points on a pro forma basis. Adjusted on the same basis, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 45.0 percent, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points year over year and 2.5 percentage points on a pro forma basis.

As for the just started year 2010, the carrier mentions that it targets capital spendings in the range of $16.8 billion to $17.2 billion, and that it expects for an annual effective tax rate attributable to Verizon in the range of 33 percent to 35 percent. Moreover, Big Red adds that it expects to see an incremental pressure of approximately 4 cents to 6 cents on EPS from non-cash pension and retiree benefit costs, and that the year-end net debt-to-EBITDA ratio should be of 1.4 to 1.5.