Telecom giant AT&T (NYSE:T) hasn’t had the best run of things lately, with its competitors making surprising advances as it largely seeks to stay where it is. But after revealing that earlier projections about its free cash flow were going to stand as they were, investors were happy enough about the news to send AT&T shares up over 3% in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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AT&T’s cash flow projections originally came out in the over $16 billion range, and now, AT&T is standing by those projections in no uncertain terms. “Yes, yes, yes,” noted Pascal Desrouches, AT&T’s Chief Financial Officer, when asked about how likely the original numbers were to stand. Desrouches explained how much the second half of the year’s projections have to do with the first half’s, and if the first half goes off without a hitch—as the first half did this year—the second half almost basically predicts itself. That left Desrouches confident in the numbers, barring some kind of calamity.
The revelation about the overall solidity of AT&T’s financial figures comes at a good time, as those financial numbers are comfortably supported by rising user numbers as well. AT&T has been rapidly working to augment its 5G network and, ultimately, bring out a standalone 5G system as well. With that in mind, AT&T recently noted that the network has never seen so much traffic as it’s seeing these days, and it’s on track to see plenty more. In addition, AT&T even rolled out an Internet Air home fixed wireless service recently, putting it on par with one of its biggest competitors, T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), which has offered home wireless service for some time now.
Meanwhile, AT&T is still looking reasonably attractive to analysts. With six Buy ratings and seven Holds, AT&T stock is considered a Moderate Buy. Further, with an average price target of $20.40, AT&T stock offers investors 35.64% upside potential as well.
