This telecom giant is primed for growth

Article Excerpt

AT&T INC. $37 (New York symbol T) is the largest U.S. wireless carrier, with 142 million subscribers. It also offers landline and satellite TV. In the latest quarter, earnings jumped to $19.0 billion, or $3.08 a share, from $2.4 billion, or $0.39, a year earlier. Those earnings include a gain of $3.16 a share due to recent U.S. tax changes. If you disregard them and other unusual items, earnings per share rose 18.2%, to $0.78 from $0.66. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.65. Revenue in the quarter fell 0.4%, to $41.7 billion from $41.8 billion due to slowing demand for traditional phone and TV services. That offset stronger demand for wireless and high-speed Internet. Even so, revenue beat the consensus forecast of $41.2 billion. If the court permits the deal, AT&T still plans to acquire media giant Time Warner Inc. (New York symbol TWX) for $85.4 billion. AT&T trades at just 10.9 times the company’s 2018 earnings forecast. It has raised its…