Alltel Barely Misses Estimates; Key Metrics Show Improvement

Wireless services provider Alltel Corporation reported this morning that both its net earnings and revenue came up just short of consensus estimates for 1Q07. Alltel reported profit of $230.1 million, good for EPS $0.64, versus EPS of $0.77 a year ago. Revenue rose to $2.08 billion from $1.84 billion a year earlier. Thomson Financial consensus estimates were for EPS of $0.66 on $2.1 billion in revenue. The company also reported improvements to several key metrics in the quarter: it added 867,000 customers, up 8% on a YoY basis; post-pay churn was 1.33% and total churn was 1.77% fifth, both lows for the company and the fifth consecutive quarter churn has decreased; average revenue per wireless customer increased 2% YoY, while data revenue per customer was higher by 64% YoY; and equity free cash flow from current businesses grew 36%. Alltel didn't provide forward guidance in its press release. The stock closed higher by $1.24, or 2%, to $62.88 yesterday, before earnings were reported.

Sources: Press Release, MarketWatch, Reuters, TheStreet.com [check back later today for Alltel's conference call transcript]
Commentary: Alltell Courting Potential Buyers • Alltel Still A Pricey Buy • Are We Approaching An APRU Price War?
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Alltel Corp. (AT). Competitors: AT&T Inc. (T), Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Vodafone (VOD). ETFs: Vanguard Telecom Services ETF (VOX), Telecom HOLDRs (TTH), PowerShares Dynamic Telecom & Wireless (PTE)

Seeking Alpha's news briefs are combined into a pre-market summary called Wall Street Breakfast. Get Wall Street Breakfast by email -- it's free and takes only seconds to sign up.