AT&T Inc. officials have shared their earnings for the fourth quarter in the ongoing week. The company revealed they have generated stronger than expected earnings in the respective quarter.
Despite sharing strong earnings, the company has not shared a promising outlook for the near-term period. The team reportedly shared a muted outlook for the near-term quarter.
In addition to the above, the company has revealed that paying the debts is top of their priority. In the running and the upcoming quarters, they will attempt to pay off their debts.
Prior to paying off the debts, they will need to take care of the dividend payments. They are trying to meet the dividend payments targets and once they do it, they will proceed with paying off the debts.
Earnings Reported by AT&T
AT&T also shared its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022. They revealed that for the respective quarter, the analysts had set the earnings expectations to 57 cents per share.
The company successfully generated earnings worth 61 cents per share in the respective quarter. AT&T reported that compared to the same quarter from the past year, their earnings have pumped by 9%.
AT&T also revealed that they have incurred a major operating loss. As per the officials, they have registered an operating loss that is worth $23.1 billion.
They revealed that it happened due to the impairment charge that was worth $25 billion. It was mainly linked to the soaring interest rates in the past year.
AT&T confirmed that the revenue it generated in the fourth quarter is worth $31.3 billion. Compared to the past year, their revenue was 0.65% higher in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Out of the total revenue, $21.5 billion in revenues they generated were from the standalone mobility sector. Compared to the past year, their mobility revenues have surged by 1.7%.
On the other hand, they have recorded a significant boost in service revenues. Their service revenues have surged by 5.2%, and in terms of figures, it stands at $15.4 billion.
Information about the Subscribers
AT&T has announced that in the fourth quarter alone, they have added almost 656,000 wireless subscribers to their post-paid fleet.
The wireless subscribers’ consensus forecast that the analysts had shared for the respective quarter was 645,000.
On the other hand, the overall revenue figures they have recorded are just like the ones they generated in the same quarter of the past year.
The company also generates revenues from its assets investments into Warner Bros. Discovery. The revenue it brought in from the particular segment is similar to what it brought in last year.
Current Year Expectations
For the running year, the company has revealed that they expect the adjusted earnings to be somewhere between $2.35 and $2.45 per share.
The forecast that the Wall Street analysts have shared for the running year’s adjusted earnings is higher than the company’s estimations. They have set the forecast to $2.56 per share for adjusted earnings.
They are expecting that the broadband revenues would be surging by more than 5%. As for the revenue growth, they expect it to grow by or over 4% in the running year.
AT&T has also shared the forecast for free cash flows in the North American region. They have set the estimations to $16 billion.
In the year 2022, the cash flows were set to $14 billion, suggesting that the company has increased the cash flow estimations in the running year by $2 billion.
Performance of AT&T Shares
The data shows that following the announcement, the share prices for AT&T have experienced a significant surge.
In the Wednesday trading session, the share prices for AT&T surged by 6.16%. After the surge, the shares for AT&T are exchanging hands at $20.34 per share.
Due to the recent push, AT&T shares have hit a 7-month high and they are now traveling in the positive territory.
