AT&T (NYSE:T) pulled its annual guidance after a disappointing set of first-quarter numbers on Wednesday, hit by the loss of advertising revenue from live sports and from lower wireless equipment sales.
However, the company gained more new mobile phone subscribers than expected at 163,000. That was almost twice what analysts had expected. The company also said it had enough cash available to service its debt burden and continue to pay dividends.
AT&T said the Covid-19 pandemic shaved 5 cents a share off overall earnings, which fell to 85c, and depressed EBITDA by $435 million. Revenue of $42.78 billion missed Wall Street consensus of $44.2 billion
WarnerMedia was the division worst hit, reporting a drop in revenue to $7.4 billion from $8.4 billion a year earlier.
The company, which said on Tuesday it will launch its new HBO Max streaming service on May 27, continued to bleed subscribers from its DirecTV and U-Verse services. They lost 897,000 users in the quarter.
AT&T follows other major services sector earnings this month
AT&T's report follows an earnings miss by Netflix on Tuesday, who reported EPS of $1.57 on revenue of $5.77 billion, despite gaining twice as many news subscribers as expected.
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