AT&T Adds 625K Postpaid Subs in Q1

News Wire Feed Light Reading 4/22/2014

DALLAS — AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today reported strong first-quarter consolidated revenue and EPS growth driven by strong wireless results and accelerating wireline consumer revenues.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, said:

We have been working very deliberately to transform our business, and this quarter you really start to see the benefits. Customers really like the new mobility value proposition and are choosing to move off device subsidies to simpler pricing while at the same time, they are continuing to move to smartphones with larger data plans.

Wireless postpaid net adds were more than twice as many as a year ago, AT&T Next sales surpassed our expectations, and we had a tremendous surge in Mobile Share plans of 10 gigs or higher. We also had our best wireline consumer revenue growth since we first introduced U-verse in 2006 as our Project VIP build continues to make progress.

First-Quarter Financial Results
For the quarter that ended March 31, 2014, AT&T's consolidated revenues totaled $32.5 billion, up 3.6% vs. the year-earlier period, the company’s strongest growth in more than two years. Compared with results for the first quarter of 2013, operating expenses were $26.2 billion versus $25.4 billion, operating income was $6.3 billion compared to $5.9 billion, and operating income margin was 19.3% compared to 18.9%.

First-quarter 2014 net income attributable to AT&T totaled $3.7 billion, or $0.70 per diluted share, compared to $3.7 billion, or $0.67, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusting for $0.01 of Leap transaction-related costs, earnings per share was $0.71 compared to an adjusted $0.64 in the year-ago quarter, an increase of almost 11%.

First-quarter 2014 cash from operating activities totaled $8.8 billion, and capital expenditures totaled $5.8 billion. Free cash flow -- cash from operating activities minus capital expenditures -- totaled $3 billion.

AT&T closed its acquisition of Leap Wireless on March 13, 2014 and incurred some transaction-related costs in the quarter. The company expects to incur approximately $1.2 billion of integration costs over the next two years and expects $0.05 EPS dilution in 2014. Leap operating results since the close of the acquisition had minimal impact on the company’s first-quarter results.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)