Telecom stocks as a group slightly outperformed the market in April. Diversified telecommunications blue chips like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) didn’t have much to write home about -- T stock dropped -1.2% on the month after one-time charges held back AT&T earnings, and VZ stock dropped -4% after a 7-5% earnings slump. But several pure wireless telecom stocks such as Sprint (S), Leap Wireless (LEAP) and Metro PCS (PCS) performed very well.
Specifically, Sprint (S) stock added +16% in April, Leap Wireless (LEAP) stock tacked on +14% and Metro PCS (PCS) stock gained +11.8% on the month. Sprint earnings this week were lackluster since its still losing subscribers, but stock tacked on most of its gains recently on signs that the bleed has slowed for this telecom stock.
The story is the same with Leap wireless earnings, which won’t roll out until the first week of May but are sure to reveal yet another quarterly loss. The market appears to be bidding up shares on expectations the loss will be much smaller than in previous quarters. PCS stock is riding this momentum as well. Metro PCS will report earnings in early May like LEAP, only PCS stock should post a small profit on the quarter.
Lagging the telecom sector in April were blue chips Verizon (VZ), which lost -4% as mentioned, and American Tower (AMT), which lost about -3.9% on the month.
Looking at foreign wireless telecom stocks, the top performers were Turkey’s Turkcell (TKC) which tacked on +7.3% and Indonesia’s Indosat (IIT) which added +7.3%. Global telecom stocks in Israel fared the worst, withCelcom Israel (CEL) and Partner Communications (PTNR) both down by double-digit percentages in April.
Here’s a complete list of some of the major telecom stocks and how they performed in April. As a point of comparison, April was a successful month for the broader market thanks to strong earnings reports and dividend increases propping up shares. The Dow Jones Industrial average added about 2.5% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added almost 4.5%.
Symbol | Stock Name | Market Cap (B) | April Gain/Loss |
S | Sprint Nextel Corp. | $12.8 | +16.0% |
LEAP | Leap Wireless International | $1.5 | +14.1% |
PCS | MetroPCS Communications | $2.8 | +11.8% |
IIT | Indosat | $3.6 | +7.3% |
TKC | Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri | $14.1 | +7.3% |
CLWR | Clearwire Corp. | $7.3 | +6.4% |
RCI | Rogers Communications | $20.9 | +5.2% |
SKM | SK Telecom Co. | $11.8 | +5.1% |
TDS | Telephone & Data Systems | $3.8 | +4.2% |
SVR | Syniverse Holdings Inc. | $1.4 | +3.9% |
MBT | Mobile TeleSystems | $21.6 | +3.7% |
NIHD | NII Holdings Inc. | $6.7 | +2.9% |
USM | U.S. Cellular Corp. | $3.8 | +2.7% |
PHI | Philippine Long Distance Telephone | $10.2 | +2.2% |
CCI | Crown Castle International | $11.2 | +1.8% |
DCM | NTT DoCoMo Inc | $65.9 | +1.8% |
CHL | China Mobile Ltd. | $204.3 | +1.5% |
AMX | America Movil S.A.B. | $83.2 | +1.3% |
HTX | Hutchison Telecommunications | $1.3 | +0.7% |
SBAC | SBA Communications Corp. | $4.2 | -0.4 |
T | ATT | $155.1 | -1.2 |
MICC | Millicom International Cellular | $10.1 | -1.5 |
VOD | Vodafone Group | $121.2 | -3.0 |
AMT | American Tower Corp. | $17.0 | -3.9 |
VZ | Verizon | $82.4 | -4.0 |
VIV | Vivo Participacoes | $6.7 | -4.7 |
TSU | TIM Participacoes | $4.0 | -8.6 |
CEL | Cellcom Israel Ltd. | $3.3 | -10.2 |
May 3, 2010 By Jeff Reeves, Editor, InvestorPlace |
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