Verizon Communications Incs quarterly revenue and earnings, reported on Tuesday, outstripped market expectations, as the company registered a stronger-than-anticipated phone subscriber growth, which triggered a 4% surge in its shares in New York on the day.
Verizon shares closed higher for a seventh consecutive trading session in New York on Wednesday. The stock went up 0.37% ($0.21) to $57.42, after touching an intraday high at $58.44, or a price level not seen since April 12th 2000 ($58.50).
Shares of Verizon Communications Inc have risen 8.48% so far in 2018 compared with a 0.65% drop for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).
In 2017, Verizon’s stock went down 0.84%, thus, it underperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 19.42% return.
Verizon’s total operating revenue grew 2.8% to $32.61 billion during the quarter ended on September 30th. In comparison, analysts on average had expected revenue of $32.51 billion.
Verizon said that Oath had generated $1.8 billion in revenue during the latest quarter compared with $2 billion in the year-ago period. Oath may not achieve an earlier objective of $10 billion in revenue by 2020, Verizon also said.
As many as 295 000 new phone subscribers, who pay a monthly bill, were added during the past quarter. That compares with an estimate of 161 000 subscribers, according to FactSet.
Net income attributable to shareholders went up to $4.92 billion ($1.19 per share) during the third quarter from $3.62 billion ($0.89 per share) during the same period a year ago.
At the same time, Verizons earnings per share, excluding special items, were reported at $1.22 during the past quarter, which exceeded the median analyst estimate pointing to earnings of $1.19 per share.
The company also said that it was set to achieve $10 billion in cumulative cash savings by the year 2021.
According to CNN Money, the 26 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Verizon Communications Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $58.00, with a high estimate of $65.00 and a low estimate of $45.00. The median estimate represents a 1.01% upside compared to the closing price of $57.42 on October 24th.
The same media also reported that 17 out of 31 surveyed investment analysts had rated Verizon Communications Inc’s stock as “Hold”, while 14 – as “Buy”.
Weekly Pivot Levels
By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) are presented as follows:
Central Pivot Point – $54.55
R1 – $55.85
R2 – $56.79
R3 – $58.09
R4 – $59.38
S1 – $53.61
S2 – $52.31
S3 – $51.37
S4 – $50.42