T-Mobile US climbed in after-hours trade as the wireless carrier delivered stronger-than-expected second-quarter results and raised its full-year outlook for customer growth, buoyed by record postpaid additions.
The telecom giant reported adjusted earnings of $2.84 per share on revenue of US$21.13 billion, surpassing market expectations of $2.68 per share and $21.04 billion, respectively.
That compares to earnings of $2.49 per share and revenue of $19.77 billion in the same quarter last year.
“T-Mobile crushed our own growth records with the best-ever total postpaid and postpaid phone nets in a Q2 in our history,” said CEO Mike Sievert.
The company added 1.77 million net postpaid customers in the quarter, well ahead of analysts’ estimates of 1.35 million.
Postpaid phone customer additions reached 830,000 - up from 777,000 a year ago and exceeding expectations for 704,500.
Postpaid churn, a key telecom metric tracking customer attrition, came in at 0.9%, in line with forecasts.
“T-Mobile is now America's Best Network,” Sievert added. “When you combine that with the incredible value that we have always been famous for, it should surprise no one that customers are switching to the Un-carrier at a record pace.
"These durable advantages enabled us to once again translate customer growth into financial growth, with the industry's best service revenue growth by a wide mile and record Q2 Adjusted Free Cash Flow.”
The company raised its full-year forecast for postpaid net customer additions to between 6.1 million and 6.4 million, up from a prior range of 5.5 million and 6 million.
T-Mobile’s results come on the heels of upbeat second-quarter reports from rivals Verizon Communications and AT&T, adding further momentum to the telecom sector.
At the time of writing, T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) stock was trading at US$233.93, up 0.3% from Tuesday's close of $233.25. T-Mobile's market cap stands at US$265.61 billion.
