New York, June 18, 2026, 17:02 (EDT)
- AT&T slipped nearly 2% to close at $22.01, logging its fourth loss in a row, while the S&P 500 finished higher.
- AT&T flagged a new Opensignal fiber report and is going ahead with its planned CFO succession, the company said.
- U.S. stock markets shut Friday for Juneteenth, so Thursday is the last day for cash equities this week.
AT&T Inc. shares slipped almost 2% on Thursday, trailing the broader market. Investors shrugged off the company’s latest fiber focus and kept up the pressure on the telecom group ahead of the Juneteenth holiday. The stock was last seen changing hands at $22.01, with volume topping 93 million shares.
S&P 500 added 1.1% to 7,500.58 and the Nasdaq climbed 1.9%. The move stood out since the tape wasn’t broadly down on risk. U.S. markets were getting ready for a Friday close and a reopen on Monday, June 22.
AT&T faces a key test as it bets on fiber and wireless bundles to drive revenue growth. The company still has to deal with big network spending, its debt load, and tougher broadband rivals. Fiber—broadband sent over glass strands instead of copper—is at the core of the strategy.
Verizon slipped around 1%. T-Mobile was up. The moves left AT&T’s decline looking isolated to the stock, not a sector pullback.
AT&T on Thursday said its fiber picked up 107 category wins in Opensignal’s latest home internet test, almost double that of the nearest rival. In more than 60% of 26 metro areas, AT&T claimed a sweep across all five categories. “This report makes clear that we are leading by a meaningful margin,” said Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager of AT&T Consumer. AT&T Newsroom
The stock dropped anyway. Investors seem to be waiting to see if strong network scores actually drive subscriber growth, stronger pricing, and better cash flow—not just more fodder for marketing against cable and wireless competitors.
AT&T is making changes in its finance team. The company said CFO Pascal Desroches will retire at the end of 2026. Jennifer Biry, who has been CFO at McAfee and previously worked at AT&T, steps in as deputy CFO on July 6 and will move up to CFO on Jan. 1, 2027.
AT&T CEO John Stankey told Fierce Telecom that Desroches was “an exceptional partner” and pointed to his “financial discipline” with AT&T shifting its strategy. The statement comes as finance leadership remains key for AT&T as it weighs dividends, buybacks, fiber investments and spectrum costs. Fierce Telecom
AT&T stuck to its earlier targets in the latest quarter. The company left its 2026 guidance unchanged: adjusted earnings per share seen at $2.25 to $2.35, capital spending of $23 billion to $24 billion, and free cash flow at over $18 billion. Free cash flow measures what’s left after operating and investment costs. That’s a key metric for investors watching dividend coverage and how much debt AT&T can handle.
The risk for AT&T is the fiber business may take more time to deliver than the market hopes. Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan cut the stock to Perform from Outperform, pointing to low-earth-orbit satellites like SpaceX’s Starlink as a longer-term threat. Those satellites orbit closer to Earth than older systems, so they can provide faster internet. If competition ramps up, AT&T could face higher spending just when shareholders are looking for more cash.
AT&T’s second-quarter report is coming out before the bell on July 22. In the meantime, trading on Thursday sent a clear message: investors want more data on the fiber strategy before they’re willing to pay up. They aren’t walking away from the plan, but they want numbers.
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