MW AT&T beats subscriber numbers in another positive signal for smartphone upgrades

By Emily Bary

AT&T's stock is rising after the company's fourth-quarter earnings Monday showed 482,000 postpaid phone net additions

AT&T Inc. topped subscriber expectations in the latest quarter, following Verizon Communications Inc., which announced a beat of its own last week.

For the fourth quarter, AT&T $(T)$ reported 482,000 postpaid phone net additions, whereas analysts tracked by FactSet had been expecting 443,000. AT&T had 0.85% postpaid phone churn, which is a metric that measures a company's ability to retain customers.

Shares of AT&T are up 1.8% in premarket action Monday.

See more: Verizon's stock rises after biggest gain in five years on key subscriber metric

Like Verizon $(VZ)$, AT&T beat on overall revenue but matched the consensus view on wireless service revenue. AT&T's total revenue was $32.3 billion, versus analyst expectations of $32.0 billion. Wireless service revenue came in at $16.6 billion and was up 3.3% from a year earlier.

AT&T came in better than expected on free cash flow, a closely watched metric for its investors given the company's dividend commitments. During the fourth quarter, AT&T turned in free cash flow of $4.8 billion, while analysts were looking for $4.6 billion.

The company is sticking with the guidance previously issued at its investor day late last year, and that includes an expectation for $16 billion in 2025 free cash flow, excluding DirecTV. AT&T is also looking to launch share buybacks in the second half of the year, consistent with its target from the December investor day.

AT&T saw further traction in its broadband business during the period, yielding a net of 307,000 subscriber additions in fiber.

-Emily Bary

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January 27, 2025 06:37 ET (11:37 GMT)

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