AT&T stock moves higher after earnings as subscriber growth story continues
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Shares of AT&T Inc. were rising in premarket trading Wednesday after the company swung to a loss upon taking restructuring charges, but beat earnings expectations on an adjusted basis and showed continued subscriber growth in its fourth quarter.
The company posted a loss from continuing operations of $23.1 billion, or $3.20 a share, whereas it earned $5.2 billion, or 66 cents a share, a year-earlier. The loss includes $3.57 cents a share of non-cash impairment, abandonment, and restructuring charges, among other factors.
After adjustments for asset impairments and other items, AT&T earned 61 cents a share from continuing operations, compared with the 56 cents a share in earnings that AT&T saw from continuing operations for its standalone business a year earlier. The standalone metric accounts for changes in AT&T’s business over the past year, namely its spinoff of the WarnerMedia business, which is now part of the new Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.
Analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling 57 cents in earnings per share.
Revenue inched up to $31.3 billion from $31.1 billion a year before, while the FactSet consensus was for $31.4 billion in quarterly revenue during the most recent period.
AT&T saw 656,000 postpaid phone net additions during the quarter, to bring its 2022 haul to almost 2.9 million. Its fourth-quarter postpaid phone churn was 0.84%. Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Jayant was expecting 570,000 postpaid phone net additions.
The company also reported 280,000 net additions for its fiber business.
For the full year, AT&T anticipates wireless service revenue growth of at least 4%, as well as growth in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) of at least 3%.
The company is targeting free-cash flow of $16 billion or more. The FactSet consensus was for $16.2 billion.
AT&T also anticipates adjusted earnings per share of $2.35 to $2.45 for the full year, including a negative impact of 25 cents from higher non-cash pension costs. The FactSet consensus was for $2.53.