NEW YORK, June 4, 2026, 08:04 EDT
AT&T Inc. traded at $23.55 ahead of Thursday’s NYSE open, steady with where it finished Wednesday after sliding 4.4%. That drop followed new worry about SpaceX’s Starlink satellite-broadband plans. The NYSE opens for regular hours at 9:30 a.m. ET.
SpaceX is planning to price its IPO at $135 a share, aiming for a $1.75 trillion valuation, according to Reuters. The company is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq on June 12.
Starlink is shifting from a private story to a public-market challenge for big telecoms. Oppenheimer said SpaceX could shake up the $1.6 trillion U.S. communications market as Starlink’s reach grows. Legacy players like AT&T look exposed, they said. LEO satellites, which orbit closer to the planet than old-school satellites, reduce lag and can make satellite internet more practical.
Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan downgraded AT&T to Perform from Outperform and dropped his $32 price target, Barron’s reported. “We think longer-term broadband subscriber growth and eventually mobile is at risk,” Horan said. Barron’s
Starlink faces questions about price and capacity, not just being new. Horan said Starlink’s prices are already close to old broadband services and should “decline rapidly” with more capacity from new satellites, according to MarketWatch. MarketWatch
AT&T isn’t the only telco under pressure. Oppenheimer wrote that Verizon Communications and T-Mobile US may also see subscriber and revenue losses pick up, but said AT&T has greater broadband exposure than its wireless rivals. Verizon was last at $46.65 and T-Mobile at $181.45 before the bell.
AT&T is sticking with fiber, wireless, and bundling. The company said Wednesday it will cut its home internet offers to four fiber speed tiers starting June 7 and offer wireless-and-home-internet bundles with annual savings up to $420. “Packed with value, savings, and powered by a network that performs,” said Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager of AT&T Consumer. AT&T Newsroom
AT&T CEO John Stankey has dismissed the idea that satellite will replace the company’s main network. Speaking at a JPMorgan conference last month, Stankey called satellite “a great complement” to what AT&T already offers. He said AT&T is expecting 7 million new fiber passings this year and about 5 million more homes a year after. AT&T Investor Relations
AT&T’s latest investor page still pitches the stock as both a cash machine and a subscriber story, not just a space-risk bet. The company posted $31.5 billion of revenue in the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA of $11.8 billion and free cash flow at $2.5 billion. Postpaid phone net adds totaled 294,000, with 584,000 net adds in advanced-connectivity internet. Free cash flow is what’s left after operating costs and capex.
The market is still looking for another proof point. AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches is set to speak at the Mizuho Technology Conference on June 9. The company will report Q2 results before the NYSE opens on July 22.
The trade isn’t one-way. Satellite might advance slower than bulls hope, and Morningstar’s Nicolas Owens pointed out that SpaceX’s Starlink business still runs into tech issues that could be out of its hands. Owens also warned investors could get “more attractive levels after the IPO,” saying hype about SpaceX might be too much already. Reuters
AT&T faces a tighter short-term question these days: is Starlink a real risk to broadband growth, or is it just another challenge for a company still building out fiber and keeping wireless customers? The stock’s direction could have more to do with how investors weigh satellite rivals in telecom valuations than with any single downgrade.
