AT&T Inc.’s share price up, posts increasing revenue due to new subscribers, invests in online-TV service to expand reach

AT&T Inc. revealed that its first-quarter revenue increased by 3.6% in the first quarter, as the company added more subscribers and also thanks to customers who paid full smartphone price rejecting discounts offered by the company. AT&T Inc. posted a 32.5-billion-dollar revenue for the first three months of 2014.

Mr. John Stephens said for reporters in a Bloomberg interview: “Customers want a quality network. We did real well in this very noisy environment. We had a new level of transparency and gave customers a lot of good choices. We feel good.”

The first quarter earnings were 71 cents per share, which is higher than the 70 cents per share forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Recently the company has offered some price promotions, which helped adding 625 000 subscribers on a monthly basis. This result is considerably higher than the 219 000 subscribers added in 2013 and once again beats the analysts average of 219 000.

However, the companys profit for the first quarter of 2014 decreased by 1.3% and reached 3.7 billion dollars mainly due to higher taxes burden.

AT&T Inc. is trying to expand its reach and to upgrade its broadband network in order to oppose to the upcoming acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc. by Comcast Corp. This is also one of the main reasons it has started following a more aggressive strategy and has started shifting its focus to making a successful breakthrough in video services.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Chief Strategy Officer of the company – Mr. John Stankey, said: “We intended to put a significant amount of money into making a significant play in this space. We are very interested in gaining scale in the content space.” Mr. Stankey also said in a statement, which was cited by Bloomberg: “Within this year, you will see us starting to roll out a product.”

This is exactly why the company is planning to launch its own online-TV service by the end of 2014. The plan is part of an agreement between AT&T Inc. and The Chernin Group, which includes forming a joint venture associated with the investment of about 500 million dollars.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Chernin Group – Mr. Peter Cherning commented on the step taken by the two companies, which was cited by the Financial Times: “Consumers are increasingly viewing video content on their phones, tablets, computers, game consoles and connected TVs on mobile and broadband networks.”

AT&T Inc. was 0.64% up yesterday to close at $36.29 per share, marking a one-year change of -6.30%. According to the information published on CNN Money, the 24 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for AT&T Inc. have a median target of 35.00, with a high estimate of 42.00 and a low estimate of 25.00. The median estimate represents a -3.55% decrease from the last price of 36.29.