AT&T raises FY guidance after strong Q3

Telecommunications firm AT&T upped its earnings and full-year free cash flow guidance on Thursday as it said quarterly subscriber numbers had beaten Wall Street estimates.

AT&T now expects annual free cash flow to be about $16.5bn, up from its previous forecast of $16.0bn, while its fiscal third-quarter figure of $5.2bn also came in ahead of expectations.

Quarterly revenue came in at $30.4bn, ahead of estimates of $30.19bn, leading AT&T to raise expectations for full-year adjusted core earnings growth to more than 4%, from 3% or more.

The Dallas-based firm told investors that it added 468,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers in the three months ended 30 September, topping expectations for 398,200. AT&T also said it had benefitted from an ongoing shift into higher-priced plans with larger data offerings.

As of 1330 BST, AT&T shares were up 4.89% in pre-market trading at $14.32 each.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com