AT&T stock: The management of AT&T Inc noted that their core wireless business exceeded their forecasts during the third quarter, which drove stronger revenue and stock price. The massive telecommunications company, which divested itself of its media businesses earlier this year, showed few indications that rising interest rates and higher prices for fuel, food, and housing were slowing demand for high-end smartphones and premium wireless plans from the carrier. This comes after the company sold its media businesses earlier in the year.
Pascal Desroches, the chief financial officer of the company, stated in an interview that “We’re in a much better condition than the larger economy.” This year, the corporation has increased its goals for both its profit and its primary cellular revenue.
AT&T Stock Performance
During trading on Thursday, the stock had a gain of more than 8%. AT&T stock is now trading at approximately a 9% loss for the year to this point, compared to a 22% loss for the S&P 500 index. On Friday, competitor Verizon Communications Inc. will reveal its most recent financial results. The most recent results for both carriers include the introduction of the newest smartphone produced by Apple Inc., which became available for purchase in the United States in the middle of September.
Postpaid phone connections are a statistic that investors use to gauge the health of a mobile carrier’s primary profit area. AT&T stated that it added 708,000 postpaid phone connections. Wall Street experts had anticipated a total of 552,300 connections for the third quarter, but the actual number ended up being significantly higher. This makes the third straight quarter where the actual number ended up being far higher than the estimates.
AT&T said that it had added more than 2.2 million cellular subscribers over the first three quarters of the year, a number that the company said it expected to be greater than that of its competitors.
The growth in income from wireless services was ascribed by the corporation to factors such as increased rates, higher roaming costs, and customer upgrades to more expensive service plans. AT&T now anticipates that its full-year revenue from wireless service will achieve the high end of the range that it originally forecasted, which was between 4.5% and a 5% increase.
AT&T stated that it anticipates a fully adjusted profit per share from its continuing operations of at least $2.50 for the whole year, which is a few cents more than what was previously anticipated. In addition, the corporation forecast that its free cash flow, which is expected to be close to $14 billion this year, will increase in 2023.
AT&T said that its income from continuing operations for the quarter was $6.3 billion, or 79 cents per share, which is an increase over the $5 billion, or 63 cents per share, that it reported for the same period a year earlier. According to FactSet, the company’s adjusted earnings came in at 68 cents per share, above the 61 cents per share that industry experts had anticipated the company would earn.
As a result of the company’s decision to sell DirecTV and its other U.S. video businesses in 2013, the company’s revenue from continuing operations decreased by 4.1%, reaching $30 billion. If we take it into account, the increase in revenue was 3.1%. The consensus estimate among the analysts surveyed by FactSet was $29.85 billion.
In addition, it brought on 338,000 new users for its fiber-optic network during the third quarter. According to the Chief Executive Officer, John Stankey, the establishment of additional fiber optic connections will continue to be a top priority for the organization.
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Author Valerie Remorosa 
