Sprint (S) Stock in Focus After Recent Surge - Stocks in the News

Sprint Corporation

offers a range of wireless and wire line communications services to consumers, businesses, and government users. The company develops, engineers, and deploys technologies in the telecommunications sector, and it bills itself as the first wireless fourth generation (4G) service from a national carrier in the United States. In terms of its brands, the company also has Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities, and a global Tier 1 Internet Service.

On July 10, 2013, the Company, Softbank Corporation, and Sprint Nextel Corporation (Sprint Nextel) completed their merger. In the merger, Sprint Corporation was merged into Sprint Nextel, New Spring became the parent company of Sprint Nextel, with Sprint Nextel becoming its direct wholly owned subsidiary, and Sprint Nextel changed its name to Sprint Communications, Inc.

Thursday saw Sprint soar by almost 7% on the NYSE, as traders and investors scurried to purchase shares of Sprint. Sprint moved north of $6.50/share as comments from Sprint's CEO Marcelo Claure at a Goldman Sachs conference helped to push shares higher. Claure said Sprint is in the process of identifying areas for cost cuts. Claure explained more about cutting costs, “every single dollar that gets spent out of Sprint gets monitored now,” he said.

He also talked about how the firm was open to any merger or acquisition talks. The volume of shares traded was immense, far higher than any other trading session on a normal day. Marcelo Claure is newly appointed to the company, and we may just be seeing his big plans unfold, despite the fact that he was advised not to alter anything in the company's policies or the firm's structure, so as to establish himself and settle down first.

Many phone users will argue that Marcelo Claure is right. He went on claiming that his company is charging too high for Sprint phones. Personally, I can attest to this, as I recently switched over to AT&T

, due to cheaper rates. Claure stated “We were advertising a family plan, called ‘framily,' that I had a hard time understanding.” He also mentioned that Sprint's phone plans were confusing to its customers, and even himself.

Often times, a good measure of how successful a company is, or how well it is faring, is its stock price history. One good indicator for some industries is checking whether the stock price recovered and surpassed its highest benchmark prior to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. When one checks the company's stock price though, it appears that Sprint has not been doing too well at all, considering how the stock has tumbled by 40% year to date. It has not yet ever made it back up to almost $10/share.

Sprint Corporation currently maintains a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), though the stock is up again in Friday trading. Sprint currently holds an Earnings ESP of +0.00%. Some stocks in the telecommunication industry that have a better Zacks Rank include, Telefonica

, China Mobile Limited

, and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGAPY). While Telefonica and China Mobile carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Singapore Telecommunications has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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