Sprint is popping after its first positive earnings report in three years
The fourth-largest carrier in the US, controlled by Japan's SoftBank, reported a net income of $206 million, or 5 cents per share, for the first quarter of this fiscal year. Analysts had expected a loss of 1 cent per share.
The profit is largely a result of thousands of job cuts last year, which trimmed $4 billion from the Kansas-based company's operating costs.
Aggressive new promotions to court new subscribers led to 61,000 new connections during the quarter, Sprint said, including 88,000 new post-paid subscribers - it's most lucrative segment.
"Sprint reached an important milestone this quarter by returning to profitability for the first time in three years," CEO Marcelo Claure said in a press release. "This represents the progress of a turnaround journey that has delivered improvements in postpaid phone and prepaid customer growth, a return to top-line growth, and a significantly transformed cost structure."
Sprint's stock price is up 36% over the last 12 months.
