T US S&P 500Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording
AT&T (T) · Q3 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $22.26 · 2026-11-11
AT&T is a telecommunications and technology services provider. The company provides wireless, wireline, and broadband services to residential and business customers in the United States and Mexico. Source: 10-K annual report (2026-02-09)
Results Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026 · previous quarter · published 21 Oct 2026 and 22 Jul 2026
Net income down 80.7% on the previous quarter. Management sounded upbeat, though noticeably less so answering analysts.
1 · Numbers
−80.7%
Net income vs Q2 2026
Outlook given
Net income 891.0M vs 4.63B
Revenue +2.4%
Against the same quarter last year (Q3 2025) it is −90.4%, so it is not just seasonal.
2 · How management spoke
Upbeat
More upbeat than 78% of company calls
Answers to analysts: restrained, but clearly less so than the script.
Last call it was different: script and answers matched.
3 · What stood out
AT&T raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to the $2.40 range from the previous $2.25 to $2.35 range due to lower depreciation expense related to AT&T Mexico.
Valuation
Is AT&T undervalued?
Reverse DCF. Free cash flow from the last full fiscal year (2025-12-31), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At 1.3% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $18.63 a share — the stock trades 20% above it. Today's price assumes 2.7% growth a year.
Current price
$22.26
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+2.7% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$18.63
Buy below
$13.97
Price vs fair value
Overvalued 20%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued 59%
Read between the lines
-
Guidance
The company raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to the $2.40 range from the previous $2.25 to $2.35 range due to lower depreciation expense related to AT&T Mexico.
-
Figure
T achieved 3.8% year-over-year growth in consolidated service revenue in the third quarter, which the company states is its best performance in more than four years.
Source quote
“In the third quarter, we achieved 3.8% year-over-year growth and consolidated service revenue, our best performance in more than four years.”
-
Figure
T achieved a record result despite 12% growth in equipment revenue, which is dilutive to margins.
Source quote
“And we achieved this record despite 12% growth in equipment revenue, which is dilutive to margins.”
-
Figure
T plans to reach over 60 million locations with fiber by the end of the decade while reducing annual capital investment by roughly $1 billion compared to previous plans.
Source quote
“We believe this positions us to reach 60 million-plus locations with fiber by the end of the decade with annual capital investment that is roughly $1 billion lower than we previously planned.”
-
Guidance
T repurchased over $7 billion of stock through the third quarter and continues to target approximately $10 billion of share repurchases in 2026.
4 more
-
Guidance
T is on track to discontinue copper-based services in 50% of wire centers outside of California by the end of 2027 and in substantially all of them by the end of 2029.
-
Figure
T reached a multi-year agreement with Corning to supply fiber to support the goal of reaching 60 million plus fiber locations by the end of this decade.
Source quote
“We also reached a multi-year agreement with Corning to supply the fiber we need to support our goal of reaching 60 million plus fiber locations by the end of this decade.”
-
Figure
The company aims for 100% fiber penetration, though reaching this goal may take some time.
Source quote
“So our fiber, actually, my fiber goals would be to have 100% penetration, but it may take a little while to get there.”
-
Figure
The company increased by 250 basis points since the acquisition at the end of February and March.
Source quote
“We're up 250 basis points since the March, end of February acquisition.”
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q3 2026. Ring: Q2 2026.
Management sounded noticeably less positive answering analysts than in its prepared script — a bigger drop than in 88% of calls. Scripts are polished in advance; a drop under questioning often marks the topics analysts pressed on, so the answers deserve a closer read than the script.
Sentences that drove the tone
“This highlights the continued improvement in our underlying operating leverage as we grow our base of converged customers and achieve efficiencies from our transformation initiatives.”
“This includes another quarter of improved momentum in business advanced connectivity service revenues, which grew 2.5% year over year, with fiber and advanced connectivity service revenues growing nearly 9%.”
“And we achieved this record despite 12% growth in equipment revenue, which is dilutive to margins.”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-09-30)
| Metric | Q3 2026period end 2026-09-30 | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-30 | Change | Q3 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 32.32B | 31.56B | +2.4% | 30.71B | +5.3% |
| Operating income | 4.09B | 7.04B | −41.8% | 6.12B | −33.1% |
| Net income | 891.0M | 4.63B | −80.7% | 9.31B | −90.4% |
| EPS | 0.12 | 0.66 | −81.8% | 1.29 | −90.7% |
| P/E today 11.6 | 13.1 | 6.9 | +6.2 | 9.2 | +3.9 |
Topics
Most discussed now
- AT&T's improved gains in subscribers and converged accounts are driving strong financial results.
- AT&T is achieving these results through consistent execution against its core priorities, which are growing converged customer…
- AT&T continues to expect relatively stable ARPU over this period.
- As recent as last December, AT&T had a pretty meaningful price increase that impacted much of its fiber base.
Faded since Q2 2026
- Fading Quarter free cash flow increased by roughly $300 million year-over-year to $4.7 billion, which exceeded the high end of...
- Fading At the end of the second quarter, 42.5% of AT&T's advanced home internet customers also have a postpaid wireless account...
- Dropped My point of view is it's a really important tool in the portfolio, but to your point, you always want...
- Fading AT&T's strong customer growth is a key driver of its accelerated financial growth during the second quarter.
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first. Summaries are generated from each filing and its attachment; every figure is checked against the source.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
AT&T reported revenues of $32.3 billion, up 5.3% year over year, and adjusted EBITDA of $12.5 billion, up 5.4% year over year.
- Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
- Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
- Other events · SEC 8-K
- Other events · SEC 8-K
- New financial obligation; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
AT&T closed the acquisition of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar for approximately $23 billion, adding approximately 50 MHz of low-band and mid-band spectrum to its holdings.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
The company reported its results of operations for the second quarter of 2026 on July 22, 2026.
- Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
The company filed a Form 8-K on June 11, 2026, regarding a change in directors or officers.
Balance sheet & ownership
From SEC filings; short interest is FINRA data via Yahoo. Collected 2026-10-26.
Cash & runway
Cash & equivalents
$10.77B
2026-09-30
Short-term investments
$1.89B
total $12.66B
Implied runway
—
operating cash flow positive over the TTM window
Dilution
weighted-average basic shares, per quarter. Change: -4.5% YoY, -1.5% QoQ.
| Quarter | Shares |
|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 7.21B |
| Q2 2025 | 7.21B |
| Q3 2025 | 7.16B |
| Q1 2026 | 7.02B |
| Q2 2026 | 6.94B |
| Q3 2026 | 6.83B |
Shares outstanding: 6.74B (2026-10-15)
Insider transactions
Form 4 open-market trades (codes S/P), trailing 12 months. Coverage: newest 50 of 153 filings; 50 filings parsed.
No open-market insider buys or sells in the window.
Catalyst calendar
management-stated targets — from the latest earnings call; plans, not promises.
-
By the end of this decade
expectation to operate the most advanced and technologically open communications network in the U.S.
Source quote
“By the end of this decade, we expect to operate the most advanced and technologically open communications network in the U.S., built on a foundation of dense interconnected metro fiber and a nationwide wireless network that I should mention already functions at scale indoors and out.”
-
by the end of this decade
goal of reaching 60 million plus fiber locations
Source quote
“We also reached a multi-year agreement with Corning to supply the fiber we need to support our goal of reaching 60 million plus fiber locations by the end of this decade.”
-
by the end of the decade
position to have the leading share in advanced connectivity service revenue
Source quote
“Combined with our industry-leading capital investment and recent acquisitions of Spectrum from Echostar and Fiber from Lumen, these agreements sharpen our U.S. investment focus, strengthen our convergence strategy, and position AT &T to have the leading share in advanced connectivity service revenue by the end of the decade.”
-
For the full year
consolidated service revenues growth
Source quote
“For the full year, we continue to expect consolidated service revenues to grow in the low single-digit range and now expect consolidated adjusted EBITDA to grow in the upper portion of the 3% to 4% range.”
-
During the fourth quarter
adjusted EBITDA growth impact
Source quote
“During the fourth quarter, we expect our adjusted EBITDA growth will be impacted by higher marketing and other customer acquisition costs compared to last year, driven by an extended device launch cycle and our expanded fiber go-to-market opportunity, as well as unfavorable vendor dispute settlements of approximately $100 million that will primarily impact our legacy segment.”