Sprint, the No.4 U.S. Wireless carrier, forecast a jump in full-year operating income as it continues to slash costs to offset the heavy discounts it had offered to attract customers.
The company’s shares were up 6% at $3.70 in premarket trading Tuesday.
Sprint, majority-owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group, said it expected operating income for the year ending March 2017 to be $1 billion to $1.5 billion, a big rise from the $310 million in operating income it posted for the year ended March 31.
The Overland Park, Kan.-based company added 447,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter ended March 31, trailing the average analyst estimate of 518,100, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.
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Sprint (S) has been offering deep discounts to win customers from larger rivals Verizon Communications (VZ), AT&T (T), and T-Mobile (TMUS).
It has also been reining in costs, recently shuttering call centers and slashing jobs to save about $2 billion to $2.5 billion.
The company also stuck to its forecast of about $9.5 billion to $10 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the year ending March 2017.
The company’s net operating revenue fell 2.5% to $8.07 billion in the fourth quarter from $8.28 billion a year earlier.
Sprint‘s net loss widened to $554 million, or 14 cents per share, from $224 million, or 6 cents per share.
Analysts on average had expected a loss of 12 cents and revenue of $8.06 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.