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Verizon beats Street
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April 24, 2001: 5:14 p.m. ET
No. 1 local phone carrier reports 1Q income of $2B, or 72 cents a share
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Verizon Communications Inc. reported Tuesday that first-quarter profit beat Wall Street expectations by a penny as revenue rose.
Excluding one-time items and a $384 million charge, New York-based Verizon Communications (VZ: down $0.10 to $52.81, Research, Estimates), the No. 1 local phone service carrier, reported income of $2 billion, or 72 cents a diluted adjusted share, compared with $1.9 billion, or 69 cents, for the same time period in 2000.
Including the one-time gains, charges and other adjustments, Verizon reported $1.6 billion income, or 58 cents a share, versus $1.5 billion, or 55 cents a share, for the same time period in 2000.
Earnings tracker First Call had expected 71 cents a share for the quarter.
The merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. last year formed Verizon Communications. Consolidated revenue rose 16 percent to $16.3 billion while the company added about 500,000 new customers to 5.2 million for in the quarter.
Verizon also issued guidance for the year and expects a $3.13-to-$3.17 range for fiscal 2001. Wall Street estimates are for $3.13.
"Like all companies, we are closely monitoring the economy, but what we see at this time indicates we can hit our target for full-year revenue growth," said Verizon President and Co-CEO Ivan Seidenberg.
Verizon Communication will also scale back its capital program by $1 billion to about $17.5 billion, the company said in a release.
On April 16, Verizon received clearance from the Federal Communications Commission to offer long-distance service in Massachusetts. The long-distance market represents a $2 billion opportunity and the company will launch its long-distance service on Thursday.
The company filed for FCC approval Monday in Connecticut and plans to file in Pennsylvania this summer, with another five more states targeted by the end of 2001.
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless-phone service provider, increased customer additions by 8 percent. The wireless unit of Verizon Communications ended the quarter with 16.3 million digital customers, a 65 percent increase over 2000's results.
Revenue for the wireless unit grew 87 percent to $4 billion.
The $5 billion IPO from Verizon Wireless has been on hold since last fall.
In a conference call open to analysts and media, Verizon Communications reiterated its plans to launch the IPO this year.
"Our guidance is to complete the IPO this year. We constantly keep our ear to ground and are prepared to move very quickly," executives on the call said. 
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