AT&T (T) on Thursday reported earnings and revenue for the September quarter that beat estimates and said it added more wireless postpaid phone subscribers than expected. AT&T stock rose sharply on the news.
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Pre-market coverage excludes earnings from AT&T excluding WarnerMedia, which spun off in early April, and DirecTV. The telecom giant said adjusted income from continuing operations was 68 cents in the third quarter, up 3% year over year. Revenue from continuing operations declined 4.1% to $30 billion.
According to FactSet, analysts had forecast AT&T earnings of 61 cents per share on sales of 29.8 billion US dollars. A year earlier, AT&T was earning 66 cents a share on revenue of $39.9 billion, but that included revenue from discontinued operations.
“The EPS hit was driven by higher Adjusted EBITDA ($10.7 billion), with T reporting a hit to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) across all of its key segments,” said Brett Feldman, analyst at Goldman Sachs, in a report. “AT&T now expects full year adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations to be $2.50 or more versus the previous guidance of $2.42 to $2.46
Additionally, AT&T reported free cash flow of $3.8 billion, below consensus estimates of $4.4 billion. But AT&T reiterated its 2022 free cash flow guidance in the range
of $14 billion.
AT&T shares are down 9.4% to nearly 17 in morning trading today.
AT&T Stock: Wireless Subscriber Adds Beat
The company also said it added 708,000 wireless postpaid phone subscribers to postpaid phones, versus estimates for a 552,000 gain. A year earlier, it added 928,000 wireless postpaid phone subscribers. “Postpaid” subscribers typically have unlimited monthly data plans.
Wireless service revenue rose 5.4% to $15.3 billion from estimates of $15.2 billion.
Additionally, AT&T added 338,000 fiber broadband subscribers, beating AT&T equity analysts’ views of 330,000.
AT&T stock was down 15% so far this year ahead of the earnings report. Heading into AT&T’s earnings report, the telecom stock held a Relative Strength Rating of 29 out of a best possible 99, according to the IBD Stock Checkup.
WarnerMedia split and merged with Discovery in early April. The new media company is called Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
Follow Reinhard Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on 5G wireless, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
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