Participant makes a phone call at the AT&T Inc booth. on the second day of the Mobile World Congress at Fira de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
Garcia’s Angel | Bloomberg | Getty’s paintings
AT&T shares fell Thursday after the telecommunications giant announced first-quarter results that saw subscriber growth but a loss in revenue.
The stock closed up greater than 10% at $17.65.
The company added 424,000 postpaid phone plans, which is comparable to the number of companies and individual consumers who pay their bills at the end of every month.
This matched Wall Street’s expectations, but marked a decline from previous AT&T numbers, especially at the starting of the pandemic. In period a 12 months earlierAT&T added 691,000 postpaid phone subscribers.
Investors are postpaid phone numbers to measure the overall well-being of wireless corporations’ profit centers. The early pandemic put more emphasis on the importance of a reliable cellular connection, and analysts searched for indicators of a slowdown.
During the company previous salary talkAT&T executives said they expect wireless industry growth to return to “normalized” levels this 12 months.
Here’s how AT&T fared in the first quarter versus Wall Street’s predictions, based on the average of analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 60 cents adjusted from the expected 59 cents
- Income: USD 30.14 billion in comparison with the expected USD 30.27 billion
For the quarter ended March 31, AT&T reported net income of $4.18 billion or 57 cents a share, compared with $4.76 billion or 65 cents a share a 12 months earlier. Excluding items, the company reported adjusted earnings per share of 60 cents for the period. The company’s quarterly revenue increased 1.4% to $30.14 billion over the prior 12 months.
The carrier’s operations generated $1 billion in free money flow, which was below analyst estimates.
In Thursday’s earnings call, AT&T executives said the decline was “according to [its] expectations” because of the timing of capital investments and payments for equipment. Executives said the company “stays confident” it’ll meet its projections and generate about $16 billion in free money flow this 12 months.
After selling off DirecTV in 2021, AT&T has increasingly focused on expanding its wireless and residential web services.
“We consider our results show that the customer-centric strategy we introduced nearly three years ago continues to deliver the right combination of high-quality subscribers and earnings growth that may prove sustainable over the long run,” CEO John Stankey said in a earnings call. corporations.
Competitors Verizon and T-Mobile are expected to announce the results next week.