Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japan’s largest phone company, reported a fourth consecutive quarterly drop in profit.

Net income declined 0.7 percent to 136.7 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 137.7 billion yen a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement today. NTT kept its full-year profit and sales outlook unchanged.

Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, rose 12 percent to 301.3 billion yen, as revenue slipped 1.6 percent to 2.53 trillion yen, the company said. That compares with two analyst estimates for operating income of 301.2 billion yen and 302.3 billion yen respectively, and revenue ranging from 2.51 trillion yen to 2.56 trillion yen.

NTT DoCoMo Inc., 63 percent-owned by NTT, last month reported third-quarter profit rose 48 percent. The unit also maintained its outlook for lower operating income and sales this fiscal year after it cut data transmission charges to match competition and handset sales slumped.

NTT, in which the Japanese government holds a 34 percent stake, rose 3.6 percent to close at 4,015 yen in Tokyo trading before the earnings release. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 2.9 percent.

Source:Bloomberg