New York, June 11, 2026, 08:03 EDT
- AT&T stock barely moved before the bell after jumping 2.2% Wednesday to close at $23.21. That move was notable as most major indexes fell.
- Investors are watching management’s reiterated outlook for 2026 and beyond, and a second-quarter free cash flow forecast of $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion.
- AT&T will report its second-quarter numbers before markets open on July 22. That’s the next big test.
AT&T Inc. shares traded close to Wednesday’s gain ahead of Thursday’s market open, with the company repeating its focus on fiber growth, the dividend and buybacks. The stock showed at $23.19 just after 8:00 a.m. ET, off 2 cents from Wednesday’s $23.21 close, following a 2.2% rise the day before.
Telecom stocks broke higher on a rough day for the broader market. The S&P 500 dropped 1.62% and the Dow lost 1.87% Wednesday, but T-Mobile US jumped 3.39%, Verizon was up 2.56%, and AT&T added 2.20%. AT&T’s story isn’t just about this session’s move—investors are watching to see if they’ll back a company putting big money into defending future cash flow.
AT&T shares moved after management reiterated its full-year 2026 and long-term financial outlook at the Mizuho Technology Conference. The company also reaffirmed plans to return capital. For the second quarter, AT&T kept its forecast for wireless service revenue growth to improve from Q1’s year-over-year rate. It repeated that consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth and free cash flow are both set to improve, with free cash flow expected between $4.0 billion and $4.5 billion. The company uses free cash flow for dividends, buybacks, and cutting debt.
AT&T’s CFO Pascal Desroches spelled out the case for higher spending at the conference. “We are building a network not simply for today, we are building a network for the future,” he said. He cited growing bandwidth demand from artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, drones and smart devices. AT&T Investor Relations
AT&T’s big question is how soon the turnaround lands. The company set its capital investment target at $23 billion to $24 billion for this year, which is high for the sector. AT&T expects adjusted EBITDA to be up 3% to 4% in 2026, and puts adjusted EPS in a range of $2.25 to $2.35.
AT&T is pushing to bundle its fiber and wireless services. The company counts “converged” customers as those who have both its high-speed home internet and its wireless plans. In Q1, almost 45% of advanced home internet subscribers also had AT&T wireless, if you leave out recently acquired Lumen fiber customers. Management says these bundled users are more loyal and worth more to AT&T. AT&T Newsroom
AT&T’s latest quarter gave some support to that pitch. The company reported 584,000 new advanced connectivity internet customers in Q1, split between 292,000 new fiber adds and 292,000 fixed wireless net adds. Fixed wireless is home internet sent over wireless rather than fiber. AT&T also added 294,000 postpaid phone customers, the group Wall Street tracks most closely.
Scale is the second part of the story. AT&T finished the first quarter covering over 37 million consumer and business locations with fiber, which includes more than 4 million from the Lumen mass-market fiber buy. The company says it’s still on pace to reach over 40 million fiber locations by the end of 2026, and more than 60 million by 2030.
AT&T’s shareholder return plan was the focus on Wednesday. The company said it is targeting over $45 billion in returns to shareholders between 2026 and 2028 through dividends and buybacks. For 2026, AT&T targets keeping its annual common dividend at $1.11 per share and buying back roughly $8 billion of its own stock.
The Lumen assets make up a smaller, but key piece of the growth story here. Desroches said AT&T picked up about 4.5 million fiber passings for around $5.8 billion. Penetration in those areas is about 25%, he said, while AT&T’s national penetration average is closer to 40%. If AT&T can bundle wireless and fiber in those areas, he said the network could turn into more than just another asset.
AT&T’s first-quarter free cash flow dropped to $2.5 billion from $3.1 billion a year ago, as the company spent more on capital investment to speed up its fiber push. Total debt came in at $138.4 billion, with net debt at $126.4 billion at the end of the quarter. The risk now is that things get tighter before they improve. Any slip in wireless growth, slower fiber sign-ups, trouble with Lumen integration, or tougher price moves from Verizon and T-Mobile could force AT&T to slow buybacks or push out its leverage goal.
July 22 puts focus on AT&T’s earnings report. Attention will be on whether the company hits its second-quarter free cash flow target, posts better wireless service revenue growth, and keeps adding advanced home internet at a steady clip. Investors will also watch if AT&T funds the capital plan credited with sparking this week’s fresh buying in the stock.
