New York, June 10, 2026, 08:03 EDT
- AT&T shares changed hands at $22.71, matching Tuesday’s close. The stock rose 0.93%.
- AT&T shares got a new boost after CFO Pascal Desroches spoke at the Mizuho conference. The company repeated its 2026 guidance, and it stuck to a free-cash-flow target of $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion for the second quarter.
- Investors are weighing cash flow against more aggressive competition from low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband, mainly from SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon Leo.
AT&T Inc. stock hovered at $22.71 early Wednesday, steady with the Tuesday close. Shares had risen 0.93% to end at $22.71. Investors on Wednesday saw the company release the transcript from Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches’ remarks at the Mizuho Technology Conference, alongside a new reaffirmation of AT&T’s 2026 outlook. Concerns over satellite-broadband had weighed on the stock last week.
AT&T is holding up on its own as futures pointed lower early Wednesday. Dow futures slipped 0.74%, S&P 500 futures lost 0.81% and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.28% at 6:26 a.m. ET, with pressure from tech selling, jitters around Iran, and a key inflation reading. The broader market weakness puts AT&T’s steadier action down to the company, not the wider tape.
Cash is what matters for investors right now. AT&T said it’s still looking for second-quarter free cash flow of $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion. That’s after covering operations and capex, and fuels the company’s dividend, debt plans, and buybacks. AT&T also sees stronger wireless service revenue growth this quarter versus the first, plus better consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth. Home internet adds are still gaining. Adjusted EBITDA is a number AT&T calculates before taking out interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
AT&T gave the new second-quarter cash-flow range after a first quarter packed with investment. Revenue was up 2.9% to $31.5 billion. Adjusted EBITDA printed at $11.8 billion. But free cash flow slipped to $2.5 billion from $3.1 billion last year as AT&T pushed fiber builds. Management is signaling to investors that this round of spending should mean more cash coming in, not just bigger capex lines.
Desroches kept it simple at Mizuho: “AI doesn’t exist without our connectivity.” He said AT&T is putting together an “AI ready” network, and pointed to fiber as the go-to broadband for now, citing symmetrical speeds, low latency, and lower unit costs for bandwidth. investors.att.com
Lumen’s fiber assets are at the center of the argument. Desroches said AT&T picked up about 4.5 million fiber passings for $5.8 billion. That’s a 25% penetration rate, below the company’s 40% national average. He said local response has been good so far, but the acquired build team isn’t at full installation speed yet.
AT&T is sticking with its pledge to hand over more than $45 billion to investors between 2026 and 2028 through payouts and share buybacks. The company also wants to cut net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratios to close to 2.5x about three years after the EchoStar deal.
Starlink is shifting the telecom stock debate away from just subscriber numbers. Reuters said last week that Oppenheimer views SpaceX’s Starlink as a disruptor to the $1.6 trillion U.S. communications market. The note pointed at legacy broadband names like AT&T as most exposed, with Verizon and T-Mobile also cited for possible faster subscriber and revenue hits. Low-Earth-orbit satellites, or LEOs, orbit near the planet and cut lag compared to older satellite tech.
Amazon Leo gets more time. Fierce Network said the FCC has waived the project’s July 2026 interim satellite deployment deadline but kept the July 30, 2029 final deadline for launching a 3,232-satellite network. Desroches pushed back, saying satellites only help in very rural spots, while most urban and suburban areas are covered by cheaper, denser fiber, cable, fixed-wireless, and wireless options.
Optimism for AT&T isn’t without risk. The carrier’s plans rely on keeping up big network spending, getting Lumen folded in, securing regulatory sign-off for its $23 billion EchoStar spectrum deal, and driving enough wireless and broadband growth to protect margins. AT&T said notes and debentures totaled $137.0 billion at March 31. $6.8 billion in long-term debt is due within a year. The latest 10-Q points to competition, spectrum, network rollout, new tech and its ability to pay for more wireless spectrum as risks. Faster-than-expected subscriber losses from satellite broadband could hit free cash flow and buybacks.
AT&T’s next big test comes July 22, when it delivers Q2 numbers ahead of the NYSE open and hosts its earnings call at 8:30 a.m. ET. Investors want real signs in the results that AT&T can hit its $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion free-cash-flow goal, see gains in wireless service revenue and pick up speed in advanced home internet, not just more talk about the strategy.
