Sprint Nextel (S - commentary - Cramer's Take) is slated to report earnings first thing Monday morning with a conference call scheduled for 8:00 a.m. EDT. Current projections call for the company to post EPS of 2 cents on total revenue of $9.4 billion.
I wouldn't expect too much from the company in terms of its core wireless business, but management has a lot going on right now, so let's hope they provide a lot of color on some of the following topics:
How is the core business doing? Has the company been able to stabilize the subscriber losses? How's the unlimited pricing plan affecting ARPUs? Was last quarter's guidance conservative? What about the growth profile of Boost mobile?
What about Clearwire (CLWR - commentary - Cramer's Take)? I expect a fair amount of talk about how WiMax is the company's saving grace. Listen for any comments on cost or timelines to build out.
What are the plans for Nextel? There have been all types of rumors on this front lately, from spinning it out to selling it off to a private equity consortium. What's the story? What might the economics look like if the company has already charged it off?
Let's not forget that the CEO is still relatively new to the company. Let's hear how he feels after another quarter of trying to save this also-ran company.
Lots of questions, so, hopefully, we will get at least half of them answered. While the fundamentals are improving, I think the stock's recent run could cause a little profit-taking around the quarter.
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At the time of publication, Thomas had no positions in the stocks mentioned, although holdings can change at any time without notice.
Ben Thomas, CFA, is the founder and managing principal of Waycross Partners. Waycross Partners is a long/short hedge fund that focuses on the technology and health care sectors. Before Waycross, Ben was a portfolio manager and senior equity analyst at INVESCO, where he was part of a team that managed over $20 billion in assets. While at INVESCO, he was the lead manager for the INVESCO Midcap Growth fund as well as the firm?s senior equity analyst covering technology stocks.
Prior to INVESCO, Ben worked for Banc One Securities and Prudential Securities. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor?s degree in finance and went on to earn his MBA from Indiana University. Ben is a member of the CFA Institute and serves on the board of directors for the CFA Society of Louisville.
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