AT&T reports Q1 2018 results; misses estimates

Telecom giant AT&T Inc. (T) reported results for the first quarter of 2018. Both revenue and profit numbers missed the Street’s estimates and shares fell 3% in the after-market trading post the earnings announcement. Revenues of $38 billion for the recently ended quarter were down slightly compared to the prior-year period.

Net income increased to $4.7 billion or $0.75 per diluted share compared to $3.5 billion or $0.56 per diluted share last year. Adjusted EPS grew 14.9% to $0.85 versus the prior year.

CEO Randall Stephenson said, “Our investment in customer growth and our integrated service offerings helped drive solid first-quarter subscriber gains across our wireless, video and broadband businesses. We also moved quickly to deploy FirstNet, and we expect the buildout to accelerate as we go forward.”

Total revenues from business customers were $9.2 billion, down 5.2% versus the prior year quarter. Business wireless revenues were $2.4 billion, up 3.4% due to higher equipment revenues. Wireless service revenues were down 10.6% and total business wireline revenues dropped 7.9%.

At the end of the first quarter, AT&T had about 55 million business wireless subscribers, including all connected devices for the company.

For the Entertainment Group, total revenues slid 8.1% to $11.6 billion. AdWorks revenues increased around 9%. Total video subscribers grew by 125,000 in the quarter. The Entertainment Group ended Q1 2018 with 25.4 million total video subscribers. DIRECTV NOW added 312,000 subscribers to reach nearly 1.5 million customers.

Total revenues from Consumer Mobility customers grew 1.2% to $15 billion and total International revenues increased 5% to $2 billion.

AT&T’s bid to acquire Time Warner is undergoing regulatory review.