AT&T lifts profit forecast on travel rebound, demand for pricier plans

Oct 20 (Reuters) – AT&T Inc (T.N) lifted its annual profit forecast after posting upbeat third-quarter outcomes on Thursday, because of People opting for pricier wi-fi plans and a rebound in worldwide travel.

After unwinding its efforts to develop into a media and leisure firm, AT&T is again to focusing on its wi-fi enterprise in a extremely aggressive U.S. telecoms market.

The wi-fi service is now betting on the demand for broadband, worldwide roaming, and month-to-month bill-paying subscribers to assist repay the almost $134 billion debt on its stability sheet.

AT&T’s added 708,000 web new month-to-month bill-paying wi-fi telephone subscribers within the third quarter and 338,000 new fiber web clients.

Executives mentioned dangerous debt was beginning to return to pre-pandemic ranges.

The corporate now expects adjusted profit per share for the total yr to be $2.50 or larger in contrast with earlier expectations of $2.42 to $2.46 per share.

Analysts on common count on a profit of $2.56 per share for the yr, in line with Refinitiv information.

Nonetheless, AT&T handed on a few of the inflationary stress to customers when it elevated costs of some plans and needed to trim its annual free money circulation outlook attributable to late bill-payments in its enterprise-heavy enterprise.

Analysts have additionally raised issues on the consequences of U.S. carriers’ aggressive promotion technique in a bid to retain subscribers.

J.P Morgan analyst Philip Cusick mentioned AT&T’s free money circulation for the quarter was “gentle”, however reiterated at $14 billion for the yr, which might require a 50% quarter-on-quarter ramp to $6 billion within the fourth quarter.

AT&T reported an adjusted profit of 68 cents per share on income of $30 billion within the quarter ended Sept. 30, each above expectations of a profit of 61 cents on income of $29.86 billion.

Shares in AT&T rose 5.1%, whereas Verizon and T-Cellular shares gained about 0.5%.

Reporting by Eva Mathews and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Modifying by Arun Koyyur

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