United States Cellular (USM) reported $970 million in revenue for the quarter ended December 2024, representing a year-over-year decline of 3%. EPS of $0.05 for the same period compares to $0.16 a year ago.
The reported revenue represents a surprise of +2.66% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $944.89 million. With the consensus EPS estimate being -$0.10, the EPS surprise was +150.00%.
While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health.
Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance.
Here is how U.S. Cellular performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts:
- Net additions (losses) - Retail Connections - Postpaid: -14 million versus -42.5 million estimated by two analysts on average.
- Gross additions - Retail Connections - Postpaid: 140 million versus the two-analyst average estimate of 116.51 million.
- Customers -Total (Total connections): 4.43 million versus the two-analyst average estimate of 4.45 million.
- ARPU - Prepaid: $30.59 versus the two-analyst average estimate of $31.43.
- Churn Rate - Prepaid: 3.7% versus the two-analyst average estimate of 3.7%.
- ARPU - Postpaid: $51.73 versus the two-analyst average estimate of $52.16.
- Operating Revenues- Equipment sales: $228 million compared to the $205.61 million average estimate based on two analysts. The reported number represents a change of -6.9% year over year.
- Operating Revenues- Service: $742 million versus $739.28 million estimated by two analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a -1.7% change.
Shares of U.S. Cellular have returned +6.6% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.2% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
