Earnings Preview: AT&T

AT&T (T) is expected to report Q1 earnings before market open Tuesday, with a conference call scheduled for 10:00 am ET Tuesday April 22.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for EPS of 74c on revenue of $30.71B. The consensus range is 72c to 77c for EPS, and $30.38B to $31.01B for revenue, according to First Call. In the company's Q4 earnings conference call, AT&T reaffirmed its positive outlook for FY08, and was confident of FY08 outlook for sustained double-digit EPS growth.

In late January AT&T and Yahoo (YHOO) announced a new multi-year alliance to create new advertising-based revenue opportunities from search and display capabilities from a mobile handset or a PC. The agreement calls for revenue sharing, but financial terms were not disclosed. Investors will be interested to see how this alliance affected the company's Q1 earning.

Analyst Views

On February 20, AT&T was downgraded at Baird and Credit Suisse. Baird downgraded AT&T to Neutral from Outperform, citing concerns over industry pricing pressure and the recent slowdown in industry postpaid subscriber growth.

Credit Suisse downgraded shares to Neutral from Outperform, to reflect increasing wireless competition and the difficult economic environment