AT&T stock is winning plaudits on Wall Street after the wireless carrier's second-quarter earnings helped ease some worries about the threat SpaceX poses to its core business.
Wolfe analyst Peter Supino upgraded AT&T to outperform on Thursday, and set a $29 price target that implies shares can jump about 26% from Wednesday's closing level.
Supino said he is becoming more bullish because AT&T has managed to retain subscribers because of its converged offerings that combine 5G, fiber-optic broadband, and Wi-Fi on one platform.
The company on Wednesday reported a second-quarter postpaid churn rate of 0.86%, below the 0.9% figure that analysts were expecting. Churn rates measure the percentage of subscribers that exited their contracts over a given period.
Supino added that he has become less worried about Starlink, SpaceX's space-based broadband product, given how long it would take for Elon Musk's rocket and AI company to build a competitor to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
"Yes, Starlink may bully its way into mobility, but it would take years to acquire and clear the right spectrum," the analyst wrote in a research note. It's unlikely the Big Three wireless carriers would rent out cell tower capacity, "unless Starlink behaves very aggressively," he added.
Supino expects AT&T's adjusted earnings per share to rise by 11% a year, and noted that growth isn't "priced into today's near-trough valuations." Shares have slipped about 8% this year, meaning AT&T trades at just under 10 times forward earnings.
Wedbush also published a bullish note on AT&T stock following the results, raising its free cash flow target and maintaining a strong Buy rating, according to ratings aggregators.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com
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July 23, 2026 11:24 ET (15:24 GMT)
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