AT&T shares jump as subscriber growth tops analyst expectations

Key Points

• AT&T reported fourth-quarter subscriber growth that exceeded Wall Street's estimates.
• CEO John Stankey rejected the idea that the phone service industry is in a pricing war.
• Verizon also reported fourth-quarter earnings this week that matched analyst's expectations.

In this article

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A pedestrian walks in front of an AT&T location in New York.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

AT&T shares jumped on Wednesday after the carrier reported fourth-quarter subscriber growth that exceeded Wall Street's estimates, shrugging off its rivals' lower pricing strategies.

The U.S. phone service provider added 217 million total subscribers across all of its divisions for the fourth quarter, beating StreetAccount estimates of 215 million. New phone subscribers specifically, however, missed analyst expectations, coming in at 656,000 net adds, versus an estimate of 678,400, according to StreetAccount.