Sprint's Stock Rockets After Narrower-than-expected Loss, Upbeat Outlook

Sprint Corp.'s stock soared 17% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the telecommunications company's narrower-than-expected fiscal third-quarter loss and upbeat full-year outlook offset a slight revenue miss. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the company lost $836 million, or 21 cents a share, after losing $2.38 billion, or 60 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus for per-share losses were 24 cents. Revenue fell to $8.11 billion from $8.97 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $8.25 billion. Sprint had net postpaid phone additions of 366,000, after net losses of 205,000 a year ago, while postpaid churn improved 68 basis points to 1.62%. The company raised its full fiscal-year outlook for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to a range of $7.7 billion to $8 billion from $6.8 billion to $7.1 billion. "Revenue has stabilized, costs are coming out faster than expected, postpaid phone net additions were the highest in three years, postpaid churn was the lowest-ever for a third quarter, and the network is performing at best-ever levels," said Chief Executive Marcelo Claure. The stock has plunged 47% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 has lost 12%.