The Word on the Street: What Analysts Are Saying about Sprint after Fiscal 4Q15

Is Sprint Slowing to a Jog? See the Fiscal 4Q15 Results

(Continued from Prior Part)

Wall Street’s view of Sprint

In this series, we’ve already looked into Sprint’s (S) value proposition among the top four wireless players in the US. We observed that Sprint’s forward EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) metric was the lowest among these players as of May 5, 2016. Meanwhile, T-Mobile (TMUS) had a lower comparable multiple than that of integrated players like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) as of the same date.

Now let’s look at some market-based views and metrics for Sprint.

As of May 5, 2016, of the 31 analysts covering Sprint, ~64.5% recommended a “hold” on the stock. The proportion of “sell” recommendations was ~25.8%, and the remaining analysts issued “buy” recommendations.

The median target price from Wall Street analysts was ~$3.63 for Sprint. We should note that the company’s closing price was $3.44 as of May 5, 2016.

Sprint’s price performance

As of May 5, 2016, during the past month, Sprint’s stock price has decreased by ~4.2%. But over the past three months, Sprint has increased by ~20.7% as of the same date.

For diversified exposure to select telecom players in the US, you might consider the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). SPY held a total of ~2.8% in AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink (CTL), Frontier Communications (FTR), and Level 3 Communications (LVLT) at the end of March 2016.

Browse this series on Market Realist:

• Part 1 - What Sprint’s Losses in Fiscal 4Q15 Has Meant for Capital Expenditure in Fiscal 2016

• Part 2 - Understanding Sprint’s Low Rate of Decline in Fiscal 4Q15 Revenue

• Part 3 - Why Sprint’s Postpaid Customer Acquisitions Shrank in Fiscal 4Q15