Higher Pension Costs, Earnings Hits Loom as Interest Rates Rise

Telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. cautioned investors this quarter about a rising corporate cost would ding its full-year earnings guidance. The culprit was pensions, and in particular, higher interest rates affecting its calculation to tally pension costs.

The company said it expected adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45—a range that trailed analyst estimates—because of nearly 20 cents per share of “headwinds associated with non-cash pension costs,” Chief Financial Officer Paschal Desroches said on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. The higher costs came from higher interest rates, he told analysts, but the funding status of the ...