United States Cellular (USM) shares ended the last trading session 7.2% higher at $62.95. The jump came on an impressive volume with a higher-than-average number of shares changing hands in the session. This compares to the stock's 4.1% gain over the past four weeks.
U.S. Cellular has inked a definitive agreement with Verizon Communications Inc. to divest a portion of its spectrum licenses for a total of $1 billion. The company also signed a deal with two other mobile network operators for the sale of other selected spectrum licenses. Earlier this year, U.S. Cellular reached an agreement with TMUS, in which T-Mobile acquired 30% of USM’s spectrum holdings. The wireless carrier indicated its intention to opportunistically monetize the retained 70% of total spectrum assets which were not part of the agreement signed with T-Mobile. The initiative is expected to improve its liquidity, reduce its debt burden and drive investments in network advancement. These factors have instilled investor optimism, which probably propelled the share price appreciation.
This wireless telecommunications service provider is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.18 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -30.8%. Revenues are expected to be $940.51 million, down 2.3% from the year-ago quarter.
While earnings and revenue growth expectations are important in evaluating the potential strength in a stock, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
For U.S. Cellular, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on USM going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
U.S. Cellular belongs to the Zacks Wireless National industry. Another stock from the same industry, T-Mobile (TMUS), closed the last trading session 0.6% higher at $223.21. Over the past month, TMUS has returned 11.2%.
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