Bond Market News

American telecom major AT&T reported strong earnings with net income at $7.5bn vs. $4.6bn, up 63% as compared to the same quarter last year. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter totaled $43.9bn, up 2.7% vs. $42.8bn last year. Revenues were bolstered by WarnerMedia revenues and mobility related equipment sales. While expenses were higher due to higher domestic wireless equipment costs, spectrum spend etc., operating income stayed stable at $7.7bn. AT&T reported 44.2mn domestic HBO and HBO Max subscribers, up from 41.5mn last quarter taking on rivals like Netflix and Walt Disney. The company said that net debt rose by $21.4bn to $168.9bn due to the financing of C-band spectrum payments near the end of the quarter while liquidity was at $11.3bn. CEO John Stankey said, “We had another strong quarter of postpaid phone net adds, higher gross adds, lower churn and good growth in Mobility EBITDA. We also continue to increase penetration in markets where we offer fiber broadband and we’re moving quickly to deploy more fiber. HBO Max continued to deliver strong subscriber and revenue growth in advance of our international and AVOD launches planned for June.”

AT&T’s bonds were slightly higher – its 4.8% 2044s were up 0.8 to 115.3, yielding 3.8%.

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