AT&T, Kimberly-Clark, Coca-Cola earnings breakdown

Yahoo Finance's Emily McCormick joins The First Trade with Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi to discuss recent earnings reports from AT&T, Kimberly-Clark and Coca-Cola.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Emily, let's start with AT&T. A bit of a disappointment there, especially in their TV and media units.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Well, taking a look here, actually, Alexis, at what we saw from AT&T, we did see the company beat expectations on the top and bottom lines, although we did see third quarter revenue down 5% over last year, that coming in at $42.3 billion. Now AT&T noted that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted revenues across all of its business units, particularly at Warner Media, and also its domestic wireless services revenue due to lower international roaming activity.

Now in terms of the company's legacy carrier business, CEO John Stankey actually said in this morning's release, quote, "Wireless post-paid growth was the strongest that it's been in years, with one million net additions, including 645,000 phones." So again, similar to what we saw with our own parent company Verizon in their earnings results yesterday, still seeing some strong growth there in that legacy of broadband, and also wireless connectivity businesses due to work from home and education from home during the pandemic.

Also want to highlight that AT&T's streaming offerings, HBO Max activations, actually more than doubled quarter over quarter during the third quarter. We saw subscribers to HBO and HBO Max topping 38 million domestically and 57 million worldwide, so continuing to add subscribers there. And again, we did get results from Netflix earlier this week, and remember that that company has more than 195 million global subscribers. But HBO Max making some strides here, according to this morning's report, Alexis and Brian.

BRIAN SOZZI: And Emily, Kimberly Clark shares under pressure this morning. That's despite North American sales and their consumer tissue business with it, which is like brands like Cottonelle, up 11%. I do sense some disappointment here on the cost side.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Absolutely. That's something that Kimberly-Clark really highlighted in this morning's report. We saw adjusted earnings per share actually a bit light compared to consensus estimates. And the company did raise its earnings guidance, but even with that raise, still came in below expectations. So the company is seeing full-year adjusted earnings of as much as $7.65 per share. The Street was looking for $7.68, so still a bit light there. And again, as you mentioned, the company saying that manufacturing costs have increased year on year, including costs related to COVID-19.

Now we did see those personal care sales up 1%, to $2.3 billion, saw consumer tissue sales up 9%, to $1.6 billion. And then again, we did see some weakness ongoing in those professional sales, not surprising, given that office spaces are still closed, so things like communal toiletries, of course, not necessarily selling out here at Kimberly-Clark. So a bit of pressure on the cost side, and also with sales in some of these business units, Alexis and Brian.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, also want to highlight Coca-Cola out this morning. So it looks like earnings beat, and that's despite a 9% drop in revenue. And I know that Coca-Cola is trying to slim down its portfolio and get rid of a lot of drinks in its beverage unit.

EMILY MCCORMICK: It absolutely is, Alexis. That's something that the company highlighted in this morning's report, the company saying it expects to cut its portfolio of brands by about half, to about 200, and phase out products that haven't been selling quite as well like it's Zico coconut water and the Tab soft drink, so potentially getting a lighter portfolio of brands here in the years to come from Coca-Cola.

Now we also saw global unit case volumes falling less than we saw in previous quarters. Those are still down 4% year over year, but much better than the 16% decline that we saw in the prior quarter. Now the company did note that the pace of improvement has been more gradual in the third than in the second, so still a ways to go here for Coca-Cola, but the company making strides in the right direction, Alexis and Brian.