This Is Why Verizon’s Profits Sank

Shares of Verizon tumbled in pre-market trading on Thursday after the company announced that its profit had dropped 20% in the first quarter and its results didn’t meet Wall Street’s expectations.

The company reported net income of $3.45 billion, or 84 cents per share, for the three months ending March 31 which was down from $4.43 billion, or $ 1.06 per share, in the same period a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Zack’s Investment Research called for earnings of 98 cents per share.

Revenue for the telecom giant came in at $29.81 billion which was 7% lower than last year and also missed analyst expectations of $30.5 billion, according to Zacks.

Verizon also announced that it had lost 307,000 wireless subscribers who are billed each month, which influenced its earnings. The company said it would have lost even more subscribers during the first three months of the year if it didn’t launch its unlimited wireless service in February. In comparison, during the same period last year Verizon saw a growth of 640,000 subscribers.

For its Fios service, Verizon added 35,000 internet subscribers but lost 13,000 cable subscribers and lost 8,000 voice subscribers.

Verizon shares have dropped more than 8 percent since the start of the year.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and have not been compensated for this article.