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Market Update : 
AT&T Earnings Call, Fourth Quarter 2006
Author: Godwin Gwetu
123jump.com
Last Update: 3:06 AM EDT July 10 2008


The wireless company reported one third of total revenue contribution from Wireless in the region of $40 billion. The management announced EPS of 50 cents during the quarter, an increase of 9% compared with the year earlier quarter. The Q4 adjusted EPS was 61 cents representing an increase of 27% versus same period last year. For fiscal 2007 and 2008, the company continues to expect double digit adjusted EPS growth.

 
This summary is based on the fourth quarter fiscal 2006 earnings call conducted by AT&T Inc. (T: chart) on January 25, 2007.

Management:

Chairman and CEO: Ed Whitacre
CFO: Rick Lindner
SVP of Finance, Southeast Region: Ray Winborne
IR: Rich Dietz

Key Investor Issues:

- Full year adjusted EPS was up 36% versus 2005.
- Adjusted Q4 operating income margin was 18.2%, an increase of 190 basis points from a year ago quarter.
- The management plans to return $7 billion to shareholders through share repurchases in 2007.

Fourth-Quarter Financial Highlights:

The management reported that the BellSouth merger closed on December 29, 2006.

- The quarterly results include just two days from BellSouth operations and two days of Cingular results reflecting the company’s 100% post merger ownership.
- The impact of those days on the reported and adjusted Q4 EPS was immaterial.
- BellSouth’s operating results for the two days after the merger close were included in the other segment.
- The management has raised its outlook for BellSouth merger synergies from the earlier forecast of $18 billion to $23 billion.

- The small business revenues grew 9.1% and large businesses revenues rose 3%.
- The consumer revenue was down less than 1% due to the discontinuation of DSL regulatory cost recovery fees.
- The wholesales revenue dipped 4.6% due to the declines in UNEP lines.

- The revenues in the advertising and publishing segment grew 8.9% or 5.7% when adjusted for last year’s Katrina credits.
- The electronic media sales growth of more than 40%, as well as stable print revenue contributed to these results.
- BellSouth’s advertising and publishing operating margin firmed to 48.3%.
- For the full year, BellSouth generated free cash flow of $3.7 billion.
- The cash flow after dividends was $1.6 billion.

- At the BellSouth communications group, data revenues rose 5.8% driven by DSL, emerging data products and wireless transport.
- The DSL lines increased 26% with a 183,000 added during the quarter.
- The DSL revenues grew 17% due to increased customers and a positive mix shift to 3mega and higher-speed products.
- During the quarter, BellSouth maintained a strong margin of 25.7%, an increase of 380 basis points on a year-on-year basis.
- An estimated 140 basis points of the year-over-year improvement is attributable to lessened storm activity in 2006.
- Beyond that, margin expansion was helped by greater scale in broadband data and long-distance services coupled with year-over-year cost reductions.

The quarterly adjusted EPS was 61 cents and reported EPS was 50 cents.

- The management reported that adding back 5 cents of Cingular merger costs, another 5 cents of AT&T merger costs and 1 cent of initial BellSouth merger integration costs results in an adjusted EPS of 61 cents.
- In the fourth quarter of 2005, reported EPS was 46 cents.
- Adding back 8 cents of Cingular merger and storm related costs, 16 cents of AT&T merger costs, 2 cents of non-merger severance and a gain of 25 cents from 2005 tax settlements results in adjusted EPS of 48 cents.

- The EPS drivers include wireless where revenue growth is accelerating and margins continue to ramp up.
- The second driver is wireline where solid results from merger integration have driven margin expansion.

The $10 billion share repurchase plan is on track for completion by the end of the year.

- The company repurchased $1.3 billion worth of its shares in Q4, bringing the full year total to $2.7 billion.
- The company remains with a balance of more than $7 billion in repurchase in 2007.
- In December, the company increased the dividend by 6.8% and that’s doubled the increase of the past few years.

The management highlighted the five operational priorities for the remainder of the year.

- The first priority relates to strengthening the company’s lead in wireless, including further margin expansion.
- Upon acquisition of AT&T two years back, management emphasized the goal of building the best wireless company in the business.
- The company is an industry leader in wireless flow share and other leading companies are benchmarking against the company.

- The second priority is to lead in business and return enterprise to top-line growth.
- The management is expanding its reaching capabilities.

- The third priority relates to strengthening the company’s position as provider of choice for smaller and medium business customers.
- Over the past year, the management has accelerated revenue growth rates into double-digits.
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