T-Mobile US, Inc.TMUS is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2015 financial numbers, before the opening bell on Feb 17.

Last quarter, T-Mobile posted a 50.00% negative earnings surprise. However, the company has posted positive earnings surprises in two of the last four quarters, which leads to an average beat of 25.46%. Let's see how things are shaping up ahead of this announcement.

Factors Likely to Influence this Quarter

In Jan 2016, the company provided a preliminary view on subscriber addition in the fourth quarter and full-year 2015. Aggressive promotional activities and Un-carrier initiatives helped the company register record subscriber growth in 2015.

The company's preliminary report further revealed that T-Mobile added 2.1 million customers in the fourth quarter. In fact, the company reported branded postpaid net customer additions of 4.5 million in the year, considerably exceeding its revised full-year 2015 guidance. Moreover, T-Mobile achieved vital network milestones in 2015. The carrier now covers over 304 million people under its nationwide 4G LTE network.

Thus, we believe such robust customer additions, 4G LTE network expansion and the rising popularity of the Un-Carrier business should boost the company's revenues in the to-be-reported quarter.

T-Mobile is leaving no stone unturned to entice rival carriers' customers by offering lucrative promotion schemes like free music streaming and free video. Such offers will lure subscribers to T-Mobile particularly those who are cost-sensitive. However, offering discounted prices may dent the company's margins in the quarter. Further, failure to attract adequate number of customers to make up for the discounted prices and intense competition may affect results.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that T-Mobile is likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. Unfortunately, that is not the case here as elaborated below.

Zacks ESP : T-Mobile has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are poised at 12 cents.

Zacks Rank : T-Mobile carries a Zacks Rank #3 which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, a 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

Note that stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) should never be considered going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stock to Consider

Here are some companies to consider as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Frontier Communications Corporation FTR has an earnings ESP of +50.00% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. CCOI has an earnings ESP of +33.33% and a Zacks Rank #3.

Windstream Holdings, Inc. WIN has an earnings ESP of +16.33% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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T-MOBILE US INC (TMUS): Free Stock Analysis Report

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.