Mobile Leadership Strategies

Sprint’s stock has been going up and up and up, rising more than 140 percent this year, and the company’s shares have outperformed even powerhouse Apple so far in 2012. In fact, the company has outperformed all but one other stock in the S&P 500 Index.

CEO Dan Hesse said he predicts the company will return to profit growth in 2014 according to Bloomberg. Since Sprint invested in Apple’s iPhone, which included a U.S.$7 billion network upgrade, the company has been able to attract significantly more customers. It also helped increase the amount customers were spending on monthly bills, bringing in more revenue for the company. Sprint has also reduced its headcount in recent years in order to cut costs and try to boost revenues, since the company has been faced with struggles since it acquired Nextel in 2005.

Yankee Group Senior Analyst Rich Karpinski comments

“We felt good about Sprint’s prospects after hearing their story at their analyst day earlier this summer (see our July 2012 report “Sprint’s Turnaround Gets Real”). At the same time, the company is in the midst of several key projects that will make or break its prospects moving forward. It is moving beyond its initial handful of LTE sites, targeting an additional 100 cities (123 million POPs) by year end, balancing its internal Network Vision modernization today while keeping its Clearwire relationship intact to help it meet demand down the line. And while it recently said it has sold 1 million LTE devices thus far (Android-based Samsung Galaxy S IIIs and HTC Evo 4Gs), it faces a challenge selling the new iPhone 5 versus operators with more extensive LTE footprints. A tremendous amount of good work went into getting Sprint to this point—it makes sense that investors have rewarded it. But the next few quarters will tell the real tale, cementing Sprint’s place in the U.S. market (either alone or via consolidation with rivals). It is well-positioned to set off on this next part of their turnaround journey.”