John Stephens, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of AT&T, provided the following updates at the Citi Global TMT West Conference this week.
- For 2020, AT&T expects adjusted EPS in the $3.60 to $3.70 range, including HBO Max investment of $1.5 billion to $2 billion and significant share retirements.
- Gross capital investment in the $20 billion range, reflecting downward bias from fiber build completion and the company’s capital efficient one-touch wireless spectrum deployment.
- AT&T is focused on exceeding the annual 6% to 8% reduction in network operational costs it has achieved in recent years.
- AT&T has begun several cost reduction initiatives as it targets an incremental 4% in cost reductions driven primarily by lower labor-related costs and corporate overhead.
- AT&T has already virtualized 71% of its network functions and expects to meet its goal of 75% by the end of 2020.
- AT&T has retired about 140 million shares it issued for the Time Warner acquisition, including about 80 million shares so far in 2020 under its accelerated share repurchase (ASR) agreement.
- Q4 2019 revenues will reflect lower Warner Bros. theatrical revenues as compared to a strong fourth-quarter 2018 film slate.
- Fourth-quarter revenues are also expected to reflect U.S. wireless equipment sales revenue slightly lower than fourth quarter of 2018.
https://about.att.com/story/2020/john_stephens_updates_shareholders.html