AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is scheduled to report its earnings results for the second quarter of 2019 on Wednesday before the market opens. The results will be benefited by its segments while its media business including HBO, Turner, and DirecTV will continue the poor performance.
The company’s main goal highlighted earlier this year was debt reduction as the net debt had mounted to $171.30 billion as of the end of 2018. This was due to the purchase of Time Warner. The company has tried buyback as an option for debt reduction but it takes more time for effective reduction.
As the communications industry continues to move toward internet-based technologies that are capable of blending wireline, satellite and wireless products, the company is offering services that take advantage of these more sophisticated technologies. With continuing advances in technology and in response to changing demands from customers, in recent years the company has focused on providing enhanced broadband, video and voice services.
The company is currently beginning the deployment of the latest 5G wireless technology in multiple US cities. In December 2018, AT&T introduced the nation’s first commercial mobile 5G service. The company currently has mobile 5G in parts of 19 US cities and will have launched mobile 5G service in at least 22 major cities by the end of the year.
The company expects to have mobile 5G service nationwide to more than 200 million people by early 2020. In 2019, the company plans to continue launching more personalized Media services offered directly to consumers. AT&T believes the rapid Advertising growth achieved in 2018 will continue in 2019.
Analysts expect the company’s earnings to decline by 2.20% to $0.89 per share while revenue will jump by 15.10% to $44.85 billion for the second quarter. In comparison, during the previous year quarter, AT&T posted a profit of $0.91 per share on revenue of $38.99 billion. In the past four quarters, the company has met analysts’ expectations twice while beating once.
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For the first quarter, AT&T reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter of 2019 but revenues fell short of estimates. The top line jumped by almost 18% due to the Time Warner acquisition. Declines in legacy wireline services, Vrio, wireless equipment and domestic video were more than offset by the addition of WarnerMedia, domestic wireless services and Xandr.
Shares of AT&T ended Monday’s regular session down 2.01% at $32.13 on the NYSE. The stock has risen over 3% in the past year and over 12% in the year so far.