Rozwadowski Recaps Telecom Earnings

Last week was a big earnings week with Crown Castle, Verizon, and AT&T reporting their second quarter results. This week, American Tower will report earnings Wednesday before the market opens, and SBA will report earnings Wednesday after market close. Amir Rozwadowski of Barclays noted that while the earnings reports have been eventful, they seem in-line with expectations. The firm also noted that the industry seems to be getting its ducks in a row about the upcoming spectrum auction. Barclays currently has an Overweight rating on AT&T, American Tower, CommScope, SBA Communications, and T-Mobile. “While AT&T threw a wrench into the mix with now including Mexico as part of its guidance of ‘around’ $18 billion in capex, along with Verizon’s capex outlook and commentary from Crown Castle, our thesis of a back-half weighted spending backdrop seems increasingly likely,” Rozwadowski wrote. “All eyes will remain on Sprint and whether the carrier can leverage its new initiative on a cost efficient basis to deliver a strategy of network parity over the mid to longer-term.” Sprint won’t report their first quarter fiscal earnings until August 4, but analysts will certainly be interested in what the company has to say about their network densification.