Verizon posts $5.07B profit for 4Q

NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon posted fourth-quarter net income of $5.07 billion, helped by the continued addition of more wireless devices to its network.

The results beat Wall Street expectations and its shares edged higher in premarket trading today.

The largest U.S. cellphone carrier's profit amounted to $1.76 per share. The company lost $4.23 billion, or $1.48 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the company said it posted an adjusted profit of 66 cents per share.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $31.07 billion from $30.05 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of 62 cents per share on $31.04 billion in revenue.

Service revenue rose 8 percent to $17.7 billion. The company added 1.7 million net retail wireless connections during the quarter, excluding acquisitions and adjustments. Of that total, 1.6 million were connections that involved monthly service contracts.