Wathiq: Verizon shares soar: Verizon raises earnings forecast for 2021 | newsletter

The company, which has significantly increased the number of contract customers in mobile communications, raised its full-year earnings forecast.

Verizon now expects adjusted earnings per share of $5.35 to $5.40 instead of $5.25 to $5.35 this year. Mobile services revenue is now expected to increase by 4.0 per cent instead of 3.5 per cent.

In the three months to the end of September, Verizon increased its earnings to $6.5 billion from $4.5 billion in the same period last year. The result included a pretax impact of $706 million from the sale of Verizon Media to Apollo. On the other hand, a reassessment of pension liabilities and severance payments resulted in an expense of $247 million. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.41. Analysts had, in fact, expected a consensus of $1.37.

Revenue rose to $32.9 billion from $31.5 billion. Analysts here expected a further 33.2 billion.

In mobile, there were 699,000 net contract customers. Services revenue increased 3.9% to $17.1 billion.

In trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Verizon shares rose 2.42 percent to 53.62 US dollars.

New York (Dow Jones)