Verizon Earns Record $4.21 Billion Q2 Profit, Gains 1.4 Million Subscribers

Patronizing and sleazy as Verizon can be, you’ve got to admit: they know how to make money.

The wireless carrier raked in the dough this quarter, earning a $4.21 billion Q2 profit on total revenue of $31.48. That represents an improvement of 7.5% and 5.7% year-over-year, respectively, which Verizon noted is the company’s highest growth rate in six quarters.

For the record numbers, Verizon largely credited the Vodafone buyout it completed earlier this year, which granted the company full ownership of Verizon Wireless. In addition, a surge in the demand for tablets drove a significant amount of growth – 1.15 million postpaid tablet subscribers made up the lion’s share of new customers.

Verizon added 1.4 million postpaid subscribers, which represents a 50% increase from the same period last year. That brings Big Red’s total number of wireless customers to 104.6 million, an impressive number by any metric.

On the wireline side, FiOS grew for the time in years, netting 0.3% more in revenue than Q2 of last year. Verizon chief financial officer Fran “ShamWow” Shammo called it a “milestone,” and stressed the company’s commitment to fiber. He said said diminishing growth in the TV sector has led Verizon to focus on creating an internet streaming service for movies and television shows, presumably using technology acquired from Intel. Apparently, Verizon is in the process of acquiring content licensing deals for said service.

All in all, even without responding in any meaningful way to T-Mobile’s UnCarrier moves or AT&T’s postpaid discounts, Verizon had a blowout quarter. That can’t be good for its ego.

*2Q 2014 HIGHLIGHTS*

*Consolidated*

• $1.01 in earnings per share (EPS), compared with 78 cents per share in 2Q 2013.
• 91 cents in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP), compared with 73 cents in adjusted EPS in 2Q 2013, excluding non-operational gains in both periods.

*Wireless*

• Added 1.4 million net retail connections; low retail postpaid churn of 0.94 percent; 104.6 million total retail connections; 98.6 million total retail postpaid connections.
• 5.9 percent year-over-year increase in service revenues; 5.3 percent year-over-year increase in retail service revenues; 32.5 percent operating income margin; 50.3 percent segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP).

*Wireline*

• 5.3 percent year-over-year increase in consumer revenues, the eighth consecutive quarter of more than 4 percent growth; consumer ARPU (average revenue per user) up 11.0 percent.
• 14.4 percent year-over-year increase in FiOS revenues; 139,000 FiOS Internet and 100,000 FiOS Video net additions.