AT&T reports earnings in line with expectations

AT&T on Thursday reported second-quarter net income of $3.41 billion, which was mostly in line with analyst expectations.

On a per-share basis, the Dallas-based company said it had a profit of 55 cents. Earnings, adjusted for amortization costs and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, came to 72 cents per share.

The results matched Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of 72 cents per share.

The telecommunications company posted revenue of $40.52 billion in the period, which did not meet Wall Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $40.66 billion.

The company added 257,000 monthly mobile subscribers, more than the 251,500 average predicted by six analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

To keep customers from defecting to wireless rivals T- Mobile US and Overland Park-based Sprint, AT&T has offered packages of unlimited mobile data and TV services. And as the largest U.S. pay-TV provider, AT&T also has the most customers looking to cut the cord and switch to lower-cost online video services like Netflix, Amazon.com and even Dish Network’s Sling TV.

The pressure is on AT&T to outline a plan to investors about the three-tiered streaming-TV offers coming later this year.

AT&T also said:

▪ It lost 180,000 lucrative monthly phone subscribers, fewer than the average estimated loss of 283,500 according to six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

▪ The number of U-verse TV customers dropped by 391,000 while the company gained 342,000 DirecTV subscribers, a total loss of 49,000 U.S. video subscribers.

Over the next two weeks, the major wireless companies will be reporting their quarterly financial results. Sprint releases its numbers Monday.

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "AT&T reports earnings in line with expectations."