AT&T achieved consolidated revenues of $33.0 billion for the last quarter, a year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent, according to the carrier’s latest financial report. The earnings per share is also up to $0.69, up from $0.61 for the same period last year, with AT&T beating the $0.63 EPS expected by analysts despite meeting expectations on revenue, in what could be described as an overall positive quarterly report.
The operating income for the quarter was $5.7 billion, up year-on-year from $5.6 billion, with the operating income margin also increasing from 17.2 percent to 17.3 percent. Net income stands at $3.0 billion, or $0.58 per diluted share, down from the $3.5 billion or $0.68 diluted share last year. Cash from operating activities sits at $9.2 billion, while the free cash flow is reportedly $4.5 billion.
On the wireless side, AT&T acquired 2.1 million net additions, including 410,000 postpaid customers, 331,000 prepaid, and 1 million connected cars. During the period, It managed to add approximately 1.2 million post and prepaid smartphones to its base, with a low wireless postpaid churn of 1.01 percent and a total churn of 1.31 percent. AT&T Next is claimed to be helping the carrier increase its phone-only APRU, increasing 6.1 percent year-on-year and 3.3 percent compared to the previous financial results.
For the wireless business alone, it had an operating margin of 25.6 percent, an increase in total revenue by 2.1 percent year-on-year to $18.3 billion, and equipment revenues increasing 14.6 percent to $3.2 billion. It notes that almost three quarters of smartphone sales and upgrades in the quarter are on a “no-device-subsidy model,” namely AT&T Next, with 334,000 gross bring-your-own-device additions.
Wireline revenues for the quarter are down 2.9 year-on-year to $14.2 billion, but slightly up from the previous quarter. Wireline revenue from business customers dropped 5 percent year-on-year to $8.2 billion. Even so, it managed to increase U-Verse Internet customers by 241,000, though it did lose 136,000 broadband subscribers and 22,000 U-verse TV customers in the period.
