AT&T and T-Mobile will report Q3 earnings this week

Tomorrow, October 22nd, before the market opens at 9:30 am ET, AT&T will release its third quarter earnings. Thursday morning, it will be T-Mobile‘s turn to release its third-quarter numbers. Verizon will release its Q3 earnings on October 29th; originally the plan called for the nation’s largest carrier to report its third quarter results today.

CEO and president Mike Sievert will be leaving T-Mobile on November 1st. | Image credit-T=Mobile

Some analysts say that Verizon’s dividend is at risk of getting cut

When Verizon reports its Q3 numbers on October 29th, Wall Street expects the company to report earnings to be flat at $1.19 a share on a year-over-year basis. There is concern among some Verizon investors that the company’s annual dividend of $2.76 is under attack. The shares carry a yield of 6.85% with a quarterly payout of 69 cents per share. The carrier’s new CEO, Dan Schulman, who replaced Hans Vestberg October 6th in a surprising move, could decide to cut the dividend.

In a report written for JPMorgan clients, Sebastiano Petti, an analyst for the global securities firm, wrote that Schulman will seek to increase the growth of Verizon‘s fiber footprint. This would require Verizon to hike its capital expenditures, which means that the carrier will spend more money. As a result, Petti wrote that JPMorgan would not be surprised if “Verizon suspends dividend growth to prioritize investment in growth initiatives and/or discretionary share buybacks.” 

A similar forecast for Verizon was made by TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams. He told his clients interested in Verizon shares that “2026 will see heavy capital spending and operating expenses to expand and integrate the Frontier businesses.” He also says Verizon could target its dividend. “The new board member CEO seems like a stopgap we suspect could possibly be the fall guy for a dividend cut,” Willams stated. During 2025, Verizon shares are up 1.5%.

New CEOs are taking over at Verizon and T-Mobile

Craig Moffett works as an analyst for MoffettNathanson, an independent equity research firm focusing on the Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) sectors. Discussing the CEO changes at Verizon and T-Mobile, Moffett wrote, “We’ll be looking for signs of strategy shifts at Verizon or T-Mobile. Both have new CEOs. The transition at T-Mobile has been orderly and planned, but the transition at Verizon was completely unexpected. This will be the first opportunity for Dan to put his stamp on Verizon‘s strategic direction.” 

For the third quarter, analysts estimate that T-Mobile will add 840,000 postpaid phone subscribers, with AT&T adding 332,000 and Verizon tacking on 47,000. The net postpaid phone subscriber count is arguably the most important quarterly metric that wireless analysts look at during each report. 

RBC Capital analyst Jonathan Atkin wrote, “Q3 will be Mike Sievert’s last quarter as CEO. We do not expect that he is leaving the company on a weaker footing.”

“Iconic Phones” is coming this Fall!

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