NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, had slower wireless subscriber growth in the latest quarter than Wall Street had estimated, sending its shares down 1.6 percent in late trade.
AT&T reported subscriber net additions of 566,000 for the quarter, well short of the average Wall Street expectation for 636,000 according to eight analysts contacted by Reuters.
AT&T's growth also trailed market leader Verizon Wireless which had 1.6 million subscriber additions, and No. 4 U.S. mobile service T-Mobile US., which had 869,000.
Investors have been worried about the prospects of a U.S. mobile price war as AT&T and T-Mobile U.S. have been battling to steal each others customers. T-Mobile has spent months directly marketing for AT&T customers while AT&T recently offered to pay T-Mobile customers to move to its service.
However, AT&T reported stronger than expected wireless profitability with a service margin of 37.4 percent, compared with 29.1 percent in the year-ago quarter and analyst expectations closer to 34 percent
It reported fourth-quarter earnings of $6.9 billion, or $1.31 per share, compared with a loss of $3.86 billion, or 68 cents per share in the year-ago quarter when it had a massive actuarial charge.
The latest quarter included a pension related gain.
Revenue rose to $33.16 billion from $32.58 billion slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations for $33.06 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
For 2014, AT&T forecast continued revenue growth in the 2 to 3 percent range.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by David Gregorio)
