AT&T Second Quarter Earnings Beat Expectations; Revenues Slightly Miss

AT&T (T) posted second quarter earnings of $0.83 per share – beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.78 per share – versus earnings of $0.89 per share from the year-ago quarter.

Over the last four quarters, the telecom has beaten consensus earnings estimates three times.

AT&T also posted revenues of $40.95 billion for the second quarter ending June 2020 – slightly below estimates – compared to revenues of $44.96 billion in the second quarter last year.

AT&T shares have dropped nearly 22.8% since the beginning of the year.

The company also revealed it had a net loss of 151,000 postpaid mobile phone users. It explained that 338,000 of the phones it lost were linked to the Federal Communication Commission's Keeping America Connected program, a COVID-19-related initiative designed to protect consumers who could not pay their bills because of the pandemic.

That program ran from March 13 through June 30. AT&T noted that if it added those subscribers back it "would have had 190,000 postpaid phone net adds."

At the end of the quarter, the company had 171.4 million wireless subscribers, up from 158.6 million one year ago.

“Our solid execution and focus in a challenging environment delivered significant progress in the quarter, most notably the successful launch of HBO Max, resilient free cash flow and a strengthened balance sheet,” said John Stankey, AT&T chief executive officer.

“Our resilient cash from operations continues to support investments in growth areas, dividend payments and debt retirement. We are aggressively working opportunities to sharpen our focus, transform our operations and continue investing in growth areas, with the customer at the center of everything we do.”

As of 11:35 a.m. EDT, AT&T shares were down 1.18%