Sprint Losses Continue With $643M Shortfall In Q1 2013, On Negative EPS Of $0.21, And Revenue Of $5.8B

Sprint’s Q1 2013 earnings today revealed that although Sprint may have slowed its decline, it’s far from out of the woods.

Sprint’s reported earnings reveal a slight slowdown with losses narrowing from $1.3 billion last quarter to $643 million this quarter. The company reported losses of $0.21 per share, as opposed to a negative EPS of $.44 last quarter.

Wireless revenues were $5.8 billion, with overall revenues reported at $8.8 billion. A year ago, Sprint’s overall revenues were around $8.73 billion, which means revenue grew slightly year over year.

Analysts expected Spring to lose $.33 per share, but it seems that things are slightly better this time around. Huge losses last quarter could be excused by Hurricane Sandy’s destructive wake, so the lack of those extenuating circumstances seems to have caused some improvement.

The iPhone continues to be helpful for Sprint, if not life-saving. Two quarters in a row the third largest carrier sold a flat figure of 1.5 million iPhones per quarter, until the holiday spike saw a boost last quarter with 2.2 million iPhones sold. This quarter, Sprint reports that it has sold 1.5 million units of the iPhone during the period ending March 30 yet again, 43 percent of which went to new customers, on total smartphone sales of 5 million.

Perhaps the hardest tribulation for Sprint lately has been the troves of subscribers ditching the yellow network. This year, it actually reached its highest ever level of total subscribers on the Sprint platform, with 53.9 million, including its highest ever prepaid subscriber volume at 16 million total. Sprint’s Nextel division shed subscribers, however, making for a net decrease of around 0.7 percent.