AT&T Inc posted third quarter revenue on Wednesday that was slightly below Wall Street estimates, but net income was a penny ahead as the company worked to control costs. The No 2 US mobile service provider had a third-quarter profit of $3.81 billion, or 72 cents, per share compared with $3.63 billion, or 63 cents, per share in the year-ago quarter.
Excluding unusual items, the company earned 66 cents per share in the third quarter compared with analyst estimates of 65 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose to $32.16 billion from $31.46 billion and compared with Wall Street expectations for $32.19 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. AT&T reported 363,000 net post-paid subscriber additions in the quarter, slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations for just over 344,000 from eight analysts contacted by Reuters.