What’s Driving Verizon’s Adjusted EBITDA Growth?

On the operating profitability front, Verizon’s (VZ) consolidated adjusted EBITDA continued to strengthen YoY (year-over-year) in the first quarter. Verizon posted an adjusted EBITDA of $11.9 billion in the first quarter—up from $11.8 billion in the first quarter of 2018. The company is concentrating on driving its profitability through the cost and capital efficiencies across its business operations. The growth in the adjusted EBITDA is also due to the wireless service revenue performance. Verizon’s adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 37.2% in the first quarter from 37.1% in the first quarter of 2018.

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Verizon is on track to deliver against a goal of generating $10 billion in cumulative cash savings from its operations by 2021. The cost-cutting initiative has yielded ~$3 billion of cumulative cash savings since the program started in 2018.

AT&T’s (T) consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased ~19.0% YoY to $14.8 billion in the first quarter. T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S) haven’t reported their financial results for the same quarter. Analysts expect T-Mobile’s adjusted EBITDA to grow ~8.5% YoY to $3.2 billion. Sprint’s consolidated adjusted EBITDA is expected to rise ~9.0% YoY to $3.0 billion.