AT&T Tops Q2 Profit Forecast, Misses on Revenue

AT&T (NYSE:T) posted second-quarter earnings of $3.90 billion, up from $3.59 billion during the same time last year.

During the quarter, revenue increased slightly to $31.6 billion, up from $31.5 billion last year.

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EPS was 66 cents a share, compared to 60 cents in the second quarter of 2011.

Wall Street had been looking for earnings of 63 cents a share on revenue of $31.7 billion, Reuters noted.

Shares of AT&T moved up fractionally in pre-market trading on Tuesday.

Margins at its wireless service business came in at 45%, beating an average analyst estimate of 42.5%.

The company noted that it signed 320,000 new customers to its contract wireless services during the quarter. That exceeded the 233,000 new contract customers predicted by analysts.

AT&T also recorded a $750 million cash gain resulting from the sale of a 53% stake in its directory business to Cerberus Capital Management.

Last week, telecommunications rival Verizon (NYSE:VZ) posted second-quarter earnings in line with analysts’ expectations, but announced that it had added 888,000 new wireless subscribers, easily topping analysts’ forecasts.