With shares of Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) trading around $7, is S an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:
T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement
Sprint Nextel offers wireless and landline communications products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers voice and data transmission services to subscribers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands under the Sprint corporate brand, which includes its retail brands of Sprint, Nextel, Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Assurance Wireless. An increasing share of the population is opting for these communications products and services, fueling profits for Sprint Nextel. As the desire to connect with others continues to rise, profits and the stock price should follow.
T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Strong
Sprint Nextel stock has really suffered in recent years but looks to have formed a value base over the last few years. The stock has now broken above this value base and may be seeking higher prices. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Sprint Nextel is trading slightly above its rising key averages, which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near-term.
(Source: Thinkorswim)
Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Sprint Nextel options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.
| Implied Volatility (IV) | 30-Day IV Percentile | 90-Day IV Percentile | |
| Sprint Nextel Options | 38.23% | 30% | 26% |
What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a small amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.
| Put IV Skew | Call IV Skew | |
| July Options | Flat | Average |
| August Options | Flat | Average |
As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a small amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.
On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.
E = Earnings Are Mixed Quarter-Over-Quarter
Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Sprint Nextel’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Sprint Nextel look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?
| 2013 Q1 | 2012 Q4 | 2012 Q3 | 2012 Q2 | |
| Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y) | 27.59% | -1.22% | -160% | -64.29% |
| Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y) | 0.68% | 3.24% | 5.16% | 6.40% |
| Earnings Reaction | -0.14% | -0.51% | -1.77% | 20.17% |
Sprint Nextel has seen decreasing earnings and increasing revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been a bit confused about Sprint Nextel’s recent earnings announcements.
P = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector
How has Sprint Nextel stock done relative to its peers, AT&T (NYSE:T), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS), and sector?
| Sprint Nextel | AT&T | Verizon | T-Mobile | Sector | |
| Year-to-Date Return | 28.84% | 7.53% | 19.09% | 12.63% | 13.31% |
Sprint Nextel has been a relative performance leader, year-to-date.
Conclusion
Sprint Nextel allows consumers and companies to communicate at increasing efficiency through its wireless and wireline technologies. The stock has witnessed a good amount of selling pressure but is now seeing a strong bounce from a solid base formed in recent years. Over the last four quarters, investors in the company have been a bit confused as earnings have decreased while revenues have increased. Relative to its peers and sector, Sprint Nextel has been a year-to-date performance leader. Look for Sprint Nextel to continue to OUTPERFORM.
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