AT&T reported strong fourth-quarter results and reaffirmed its positive outlook for 2008 and beyond. This marked AT&T’s 11th consecutive quarter and third straight year of double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share.
Fourth-quarter results were highlighted by record wireless gains, a significant step up in recurring enterprise services growth, continued double-digit growth in broadband revenues, and accelerated expansion of the company’s advanced TV service.
Solid trends in these areas and progress in productivity initiatives reinforce AT&T’s expectation for continued strong results as outlined at its December 2007 analyst conference. AT&T’s 2008 outlook includes mid-teens percentage growth in wireless service revenues, mid-single-digit percentage growth in consolidated revenues and continued double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share.
“We had an excellent fourth quarter, which affirms our outlook for 2008,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman, chief executive officer and president.
“Our wireless business delivered outstanding results, with the largest quarterly subscriber gain ever posted by a U.S. provider,” Stephenson said. “Enterprise service revenue growth continues to improve. Broadband subscribers and revenues continue to grow at a solid double-digit pace. The ramp in our AT&T U-verse TV service accelerated, and we are on track to reach more than 1 million subscribers by the end of 2008.
“These growth trends, combined with the significant opportunities we have for continuous cost improvements, reinforce the positive outlook we have for our business,” Stephenson said. “AT&T has a terrific set of assets and an impressive record in terms of executing and delivering on targets, and I am very confident in our ability to drive strong results in 2008.”
Revenue Growth
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007, AT&T’s reported fourth-quarter revenues totaled $30.3 billion, up from $15.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter. AT&T’s 2007 reported results reflect the Dec. 29, 2006 acquisition of BellSouth Corporation and the accompanying consolidation of wireless results.
As a further basis for comparison, AT&T also provides pro forma results, which combine revenues from AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular Wireless consistently in all periods. On this basis, AT&T’s fourth-quarter 2007 revenues totaled $30.4 billion, up 2.9 percent versus results for the year-earlier quarter. Excluding revenues from enterprise CPE (customer premises equipment) sales, which AT&T began de-emphasizing after the fourth quarter of 2006, consolidated pro forma revenue growth was 3.5 percent.
AT&T’s fourth-quarter revenue growth was driven by a solid mid-teens increase in wireless revenues, improved growth in recurring enterprise services, continued growth in regional business and stable regional consumer revenues. Growth across these areas more than offset anticipated declines in revenues from wholesale and national mass market customers.
Reported Earnings
AT&T’s reported net income for the fourth quarter totaled $3.1 billion, or $0.51 per diluted share, compared with $1.9 billion, or $0.50 per diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Compared with results in the fourth quarter of 2006, reported operating expenses were $24.9 billion, up from $13.3 billion; reported operating income was $5.5 billion, up from $2.6 billion; and AT&T’s reported operating income margin was 18.1 percent versus 16.2 percent.
Double-Digit Growth in Adjusted Earnings Per Share
AT&T’s adjusted earnings, which exclude costs and accounting effects associated with acquisitions, totaled $4.3 billion, up from $2.4 billion in the year-earlier fourth quarter. Adjusted earnings per diluted share increased 16.4 percent to $0.71, up from $0.61 in the year-earlier quarter.
AT&T’s adjusted operating income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $7.3 billion, versus $2.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter. AT&T’s adjusted operating income margin was 24.0 percent, up from 18.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.
AT&T’s merger integration initiatives continue on schedule, and merger synergies continue to run ahead of the company’s original outlook. For the full year 2007, cost savings from BellSouth and AT&T Corp. merger integration initiatives totaled approximately $4.0 billion, approximately 75 percent expense and 25 percent capital.
Increased Cash From Operations
AT&T’s cash from operating activities totaled $9.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from $5.0 billion in the year-earlier fourth quarter, and $34.1 billion for the full year 2007, up from $15.6 billion for the full year 2006. In addition to operational progress, increased cash from operating activities reflects the inclusion of results from former BellSouth operations and the accompanying consolidation of wireless results.
Full-year 2007 capital expenditures totaled $17.7 billion, free cash flow totaled $16.4 billion, and free cash flow after dividends totaled $7.6 billion, significantly above AT&T’s original outlook of $5 billion to $6 billion. (Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital expenditures; free cash flow after dividends also subtracts dividends paid.)
Dividend Growth and Share Repurchases
AT&T continues to return substantial value to shareowners through dividends and share repurchases.
Dividends paid totaled $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter and $8.7 billion for the full year 2007. Shares repurchased totaled $1.5 billion for 37.0 million shares in the fourth quarter, and for the full year 2007 they totaled $10.4 billion for 266.6 million shares. AT&T ended the year with 6.0 billion shares outstanding.
Combining dividends and share repurchases, AT&T returned $19.1 billion of value to shareowners in 2007.
On Dec. 11, 2007, AT&T announced that its board of directors had approved a 12.7 percent increase in the company’s quarterly dividend, from $0.355 to $0.40 a share on a quarterly basis and from $1.42 to $1.60 a share on an annualized basis, the largest annual increase in the company’s history. The dividend will be payable on Feb. 1, 2008, to common shareowners of record on Jan. 10, 2008.
The board also approved a new authorization for the repurchase of 400 million shares, which represents approximately 6.6 percent of AT&T’s shares outstanding as of Dec. 31, 2007. Based on current market conditions and the company’s outlook, AT&T expects to complete the repurchases available in the new authorization by the end of 2009. The timing and nature of repurchases are subject to market conditions and applicable securities laws.
Fourth-Quarter Operational Highlights
Wireless
In the fourth quarter, AT&T delivered strong wireless growth with record gross subscriber additions, reduced subscriber churn, solid mid-teens percentage growth in revenues and robust growth in operating income. These results reflect the company’s broad high-quality network, attractive handset selection, extensive sales reach and continued improvements in operations.
In the fourth quarter, AT&T achieved:
Wireline
AT&T’s fourth-quarter wireline results were highlighted by improved growth in enterprise service revenues, solid double-digit growth in broadband revenues and an accelerated ramp in AT&T U-verse video service.
The following wireline highlights are based on pro forma revenue and volume comparisons that combine results from AT&T and BellSouth in all periods and include ongoing shifts in customer categories to reflect AT&T’s management of customer relationships. In the fourth quarter, AT&T delivered:
2008 and Multi-Year Outlook
As outlined at its Dec. 11, 2007, analyst conference, AT&T is confident in its outlook for sustained double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share driven by advances in wireless, broadband, enterprise, IP data and a new generation of converged services. This outlook takes into account current consumer access line and broadband market conditions and resulting impacts on consumer volumes. AT&T expects to deliver:
Additional Background on Adjusted and Pro Forma Results
AT&T’s reported revenues, expenses and operating income for the fourth quarter of 2006 do not include revenues and expenses from BellSouth Corporation prior to Dec. 29, 2006, when AT&T acquired the company. Nor do they include results from Cingular Wireless, whose results before the BellSouth transaction were accounted for as part of a joint venture. To give investors further basis for comparison, in addition to historical reported results, AT&T has provided supplementary pro forma results for 2005 and 2006, which combine revenues from AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular Wireless in all periods. These pro forma results are available at www.att.com/investor.relations.
AT&T’s adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter of 2007 exclude (1) pretax integration and amortization costs totaling $1.8 billion related to acquisitions and (2) a reduction to operating income of $36 million due to the merger-related purchase accounting treatment of deferred Advertising & Publishing revenues and associated expenses. Combined, these adjustments reduced fourth-quarter 2007 reported earnings per share by $0.19. Adjusted results for the fourth quarter of 2006 excluded pretax merger-related costs totaling $624 million, or $0.11 per diluted share.
AT&T’s 2007 Advertising & Publishing results are affected by the BellSouth acquisition. Prior to its acquisition by AT&T, BellSouth amortized the revenues and expenses of printed directory advertising books over the lives of the directories, typically 12 months. In accordance with purchase accounting rules, BellSouth’s deferred revenues and expenses for all directories delivered prior to the close of the merger have been eliminated in consolidated results. In 2007, eliminating this amortization resulted in reductions to consolidated revenues, expenses and net income from the pre-acquisition BellSouth directory operations, but the adjustment did not affect cash from operations. These adjustments reduced fourth-quarter 2007 consolidated revenues by $53 million and consolidated operating expenses by $17 million.
AT&T continues to manage its print directory business using amortized results. As a result, amortized results are shown in the Advertising & Publishing segment on AT&T’s Statement of Segment Income. In 2008, consolidated and segment results will both reflect amortization accounting.
As shown in AT&T’s Statement of Segment Income, AT&T’s Advertising & Publishing revenues totaled $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, operating expenses were $1.0 billion and operating income was $507 million.
Also excluding merger-related intangible amortization and integration costs, fourth-quarter Advertising & Publishing operating expenses were $790 million and operating income was $683 million.
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