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AT&T's income up 14 pct.
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January 22, 1997: 3:51 p.m. ET
Fourth quarter earnings climb despite spin-offs of Lucent, NCR
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - AT&T Corp. Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter profit that reversed a loss from a year earlier, but its results were held back by unpaid telephone bills and fell short of Wall Street expectations.
The telecom giant said fourth-quarter income rose 14 percent to $1.24 billion, excluding special factors.
AT&T said income from continuing operations, which excludes restructuring and other charges for the fourth quarter of 1995, climbed 12 percent to 76 cents per share from 68 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. The numbers fell short of Wall Street's expectations of 80 cents.
Total income for 1996, excluding special factors, rose to $5.6 billion from $3.2 billion in 1995.
AT&T added that increased fraud, delinquencies and bankruptcies cost the company $200 million.
Earnings per share for 1996 were $3.47, a 5.5-percent increase from $3.29 per share in 1995. Fourth-quarter revenues rose to $13.2 billion from $12.9 billion a year ago.
"AT&T had a record year in 1996 in the face of extraordinary challenges and unprecedented changes in our business and in our industry," AT&T Chairman Robert E. Allen said in a statement.
In September 1996, AT&T said it would restructure its businesses, a process completed with the spinoff of NCR Corp. at the end of 1996.
AT&T previously concluded the spinoff of its majority holding in Lucent Technologies Inc.. The telecommunications giant also sold its majority position in AT&T Capital Corp. to a consortium of investors. 
--Will Morton
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