Verizon Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Slightly Below

Verizon Communications (VZ) beat second-quarter earnings estimates Friday, although its revenues were slightly below Wall Street's expectations as the telecommunications giant continues to slug it out with rival AT&T (T).

Verizon reported sales of nearly $26.8 billion in the quarter, down a mere 0.3% from a year ago. Wall Street was expecting the telecom giant to pull in sales of $27 billion for the quarter. The company reported a net loss of $1.5 billion, or 7 cents a share, compared with net profits of $3.2 billion last year. But when excluding special charges for a workforce reduction, Verizon would have posted net profits of 58 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting Verizon to bring in 56 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

"Verizon showed solid improvement in operational results in the quarter," Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon CEO, said in a statement. "In addition, the wireline spinoff to Frontier on July 1 improves our future growth profile. We see the opportunity to create additional shareholder value with a revenue portfolio that is now more heavily focused on wireless, FiOS and global IP."

Verizon's shares were slightly up 0.37% to $27.10 in pre-market trading.