AT&T Reports Higher Q2 Profit and Record Fiber Subscriber Additions

AT&T's Strong Quarter Meets a Stock That Refuses to Cheer

AT&T said on July 22, 2026, that its profit for the April-to-June quarter beat what Wall Street analysts had expected^[1][2]. Adjusted earnings came in at $0.65 per share, above the $0.59 analysts had forecast and up from $0.54 a year earlier^[2][3]. Revenue rose 2.3% to $31.6 billion^[3]. The company called it a record quarter for combined fiber and fixed-wireless internet sign-ups^[4].

The new-customer numbers drove the story. AT&T added 367,000 net new fiber customers and 279,000 net new fixed-wireless customers^[1][3]. On phones, it added 432,000 net new postpaid subscribers, beating the roughly 338,500 analysts expected — its most closely watched number^[1][2]. The company also raised its planned 2026 stock buyback to about $10 billion, up from $8 billion^[5].

Investors liked what they saw. The stock rose more than 4% on the day, to about $23.19^[1]. But shares are still down roughly 12% for 2026 so far^[6]. That gap between one good quarter and a full year of losses is where the real disagreement about AT&T sits.

What Nobody Disputes

Start with the numbers everyone agrees on. Revenue was $31.6 billion, up from $30.8 billion a year earlier^[3]. Free cash flow — the cash left over after running the business and paying for network upgrades — came in around $4.7 billion, above the company's own guidance of $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion^[5].

The subscriber gains were real and broad-based. AT&T's fiber and fixed-wireless additions of 646,000 combined were a company record^[1][4]. Its fiber network now reaches more than 38.6 million locations, and the company still aims to pass 40 million by the end of 2026^[3].

AT&T also kept its full-year profit guidance unchanged, at $2.25 to $2.35 in adjusted earnings per share, while making the buyback bigger^[5]. Debt stayed roughly flat: net debt was 2.68 times adjusted EBITDA, about the same as the prior quarter^[5]. None of this is in dispute. The argument starts over what it means.

The Bet AT&T Is Making, and the Bill That Comes With It

To understand why this quarter matters so much, it helps to know what AT&T is actually selling. It is not just phone plans or home internet — it is both, bundled together, over a network that is expensive to build and hard to copy. The company calls this "convergence": more than 42% of its home-internet customers also buy AT&T wireless service^[4]. A customer with two AT&T services is less likely to leave for a competitor, and cheaper for the company to keep happy.

Building that network is not cheap. AT&T spends $23 billion to $24 billion a year just on fiber lines and 5G towers, spending it must keep justifying with steady new customers^[5]. That is the engine behind both the growth story investors like and the debt load they worry about.

The debt figure needs unpacking too. Net debt of 2.68 times EBITDA means AT&T's borrowing is worth about 2.68 years of its core operating earnings — a common way to judge whether a company can handle its debt. AT&T's own long-stated comfort level is 2.5 times, so 2.68 is only a little above target^[5]. Management has also said leverage will climb further, toward about 3.2 times, after a pending purchase of wireless spectrum from EchoStar, before falling back over the following three years^[5]. That timeline matters: it means the company is planning to carry more debt, not less, in the near term.

AT&T has also promised investors it will return $45 billion or more through 2028 via dividends and buybacks^[5]. Raising this year's buyback to $10 billion is part of keeping that promise credible. But every dollar spent buying back stock is a dollar not spent paying down debt or building more fiber — the same fiber the company says is its main defense against competitors.

How AT&T and the Bulls See It

Management, led by CEO John Stankey, argues the "investment-led strategy" is proving itself: spend now on network, then sell customers on convergence, and watch profits follow^[3][4]. On the specific worry hanging over the stock — satellite internet, especially Elon Musk's Starlink — Stankey has pushed back directly. He argues satellite service cannot replace the tens of billions of dollars of fiber and 5G already built into dense areas like hospitals, campuses, and high-rises, and has said satellite rivals are "coming to the game very late"^[7][8].

Bullish analysts point past the subscriber counts to the profit margins underneath them. Revenue in AT&T's core connectivity business rose 5.1%, but operating income in that same business rose about 20% — profits grew four times faster than sales^[1]. To this camp, that gap shows AT&T can add customers and get more efficient at the same time, while still returning cash to shareholders through the buyback^[5]. Investors who already own the stock, or are weighing whether to, have an obvious stake in the market agreeing with that reading — a re-rating higher benefits them directly^[1].

How Skeptics See It

Skeptics do not dispute the quarter's numbers. They dispute what one good quarter proves. Starlink and other satellite services can reach rural customers without laying a single mile of cable — the same customers AT&T spent decades and billions of dollars wiring up^[6][8]. That competitive risk has weighed on telecom stocks all year, skeptics note, and it is the likeliest reason AT&T shares are still down about 12% in 2026 even after beating estimates^[6].

They also read the debt and buyback numbers differently than the bulls do. Yes, 2.68 times EBITDA is close to AT&T's 2.5 times target, but management itself expects that ratio to rise to roughly 3.2 times after the EchoStar deal, leaving less room to absorb a weak quarter later^[5][6]. Some skeptics argue that growing the buyback to $10 billion, rather than steering more cash toward paying down debt or accelerating the fiber build-out the whole strategy depends on, favors near-term payouts to shareholders over strengthening the balance sheet^[5]. Short-sellers, satellite competitors, and cautious analysts all stand to be proven right if the market eventually prices in slower growth for AT&T — a risk that falls most heavily on rural expansion, where satellite competition is strongest^[6].

How the Coverage Split

Different outlets picked different pieces of the same numbers to lead with, and where they aimed their headline said as much as the numbers themselves. AT&T's own release led with words like "strong," "record," and "momentum," the language of a company selling its own story^[3]. Business-right outlets such as 24/7 Wall St. and Invezz built their coverage around the personal clash between Stankey and Musk, framing the quarter as a confident incumbent shutting down a hyped rival^[7]. Center-left outlet Quartz described the quarter mainly as a clean subscriber-growth beat, with less scrutiny of the buyback as a use of cash^[1]. Trade press like Fierce Network zeroed in on the single strongest wireless number, the 432,000 phone additions, reflecting an audience focused on operations over market risk^[2]. Independent markets site ECIKS.org paired the beat with the satellite-competition caveat right in its headline, a "strong but risky" framing^[8]. Across all of them, the underlying figures were the same. What changed was which fact got the spotlight.