U.S. telecom AT&T (NYSE:T) on Wednesday reported a strong top- and bottom-line beat for the fourth quarter that overshadowed its misses for some subscriber metrics and provided a full-year profit outlook that was above expectations.
Shares of the company jumped more than 6% in immediate reaction to the report but pared some gains and are currently up 3.5% in early premarket trading on the NYSE.
For the full year, AT&T guided adjusted earnings per share between $2.25 and $2.35, ahead of the $2.23 per share estimate, and adjusted EBITDA growth in the 3% to 4% range, with growth reaching 5% by 2028.
In Q4, the company added 283,000 fiber subscribers, ahead of the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 277,028.
However, wireless postpaid phone net adds of 421,000 were below the 439,946 estimate, and wireless postpaid net additions were 641,000, below the estimates of 663,582.
Postpaid phone-only churn in Q4 was 0.98%, up 13 basis points year-over-year, and ahead of the consensus estimate of 0.94%. Free cash flow was $4.2B vs. $4B for the same period last year.
Net income attributable to common stock for the quarter was $3.8B, or $0.53 per share, compared to $4B, or $0.56 per share, for the same period last year.
Excluding items, on a per-share basis, the Dallas, Texas-based company earned 52 cents, topping the average analyst expectation by at least 5 cents.
Revenue rose 3.6% to $33.5B and was above the consensus estimate by over $600M.
From 2026 through 2028, the company expects service revenue growth in the low-single-digit range annually and capital investment in the $23B to $24B range annually. FCF is expected to be more than $18B in 2026, $19B+ in 2027, and $21B+ in 2028.
The company expects to buy back about $8B of common stock this year and return at least more than $45B to shareholders from 2026 to 2028. It is maintaining its current annualized common stock dividend of $1.11 per share.
Beginning with the first-quarter results, AT&T plans to revise its operating segments, namely “Advanced Connectivity,” “Legacy,” and “Latin America.”