Why AT&T stock is rising today

AT&T (NYSE:T) The stock is rising in Wednesday's trading session following the telecom giant's third-quarter report. The stock price was up about 4% as of 1:45 p.m. ET.

AT&T released its Q3 results before the market opened on Wednesday morning, reporting non-GAAP (adjusted) profit of $0.60 per share, beating Wall Street analysts' average estimate of $0.57 per share exceeded. But sales of $30.2 billion fell short of expectations of $30.45 billion. However, margins were strong and the company provided encouraging guidance in some key respects.

During the quarter, the company added 403,000 postpaid phone subscriptions and mobility services revenue increased 4% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, 226,000 new AT&T Fiber subscriptions were added, making the third quarter the 19th consecutive quarter of net additions exceeding 200,000. Total consumer broadband revenue increased 6.4% year-over-year.

Despite strong performances in the mobile and broadband segments, continued declines in the business wireline segment continued to weigh on revenue. Total revenue fell 0.5% in the period from $30.4 billion in the year-earlier period, and adjusted earnings per share fell about 6%.

Despite annual revenue and profit declines in the third quarter, AT&T's key growth drivers delivered encouraging results – and profitability was better than expected. The implementation of the strategy appears to be on the right track.

Management also reiterated its full-year guidance. The Company continues to expect annual wireless and broadband revenues to increase approximately 3% and more than 7%, respectively. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are expected to increase by 3%. Management also said the company is on track to meet its goal of achieving a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.5 in the first half of next year.

Before you buy AT&T stock, consider the following:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor The analyst team has just identified what they think this is The 10 best stocks so investors can buy it now… and AT&T wasn't one of them. The ten stocks that made the cut could deliver huge returns in the years to come.

Think about when Nvidia created this list on April 15, 2005… if you have $1,000 invested at the time of our recommendation, You would have $879,935!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow roadmap to success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks per month. The Stock Advisor has service more than quadrupled the return of the S&P 500 since 2002*.

The story continues