T-Mobile's new subscribtion numbers topped Wall Street's estimates
The shares of T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) are up 6% at $122.73 this morning, after the company's third-quarter earnings beat. The telecommunications concern also lifted its 2021 guidance, though revenue fell short of expectations. TMUS reported a better-than-expected 673,000 million additional subscribers in the third quarter, but slipped below subscription numbers from some of its top competitors.
Analysts are already chiming in. So far, two members of the brokerage bunch have cut their price targets, while two have raised them. More specifically, Raymond James hiked its price objective to $158 from $151, and upgraded T-Mobile stock to "strong buy" from "outperform." Plus, Oppenheimer noted the company's "5G network quality is improving at an impressive clip."
Heading into today, analysts were extremely bullish. Of the 14 in coverage, one called TMUS a "hold," while the rest said "buy" or better. Plus, the 12-month consensus target price of $171.54 is a 39.8% premium to current levels.
The security has been on a downward spiral over the last few months, after hitting a July 16 record high of $150.20, pressured lower by the 20-day moving average. Today's pop marks the first time TMUS has traded above the trendline since August, though the stock still sports an 8.9% year-to-date defict.
Short interest has been in decline, falling 29.6% in the last two reporting periods. The 15.39 million shares sold short make up 2.6% of the stock's available float, and would take a little over three days to cover, at TMUS' average pace of daily trading.
T-Mobile stock's options pits are bursting with activity today, with 20,000 calls and 7,489 puts exchanged so far, which is four times the intraday average. The January 2022 125-strike call is the most popular, followed by the November 117 call.