Oppenheimer: AT&T, Verizon capital expenditures in 2018 higher than expected

 The analysts at Oppenheimer raised their capital expenditure estimates for both AT&T and Verizon for 2018, noting that both carriers are spending slightly more on their network efforts than the analysts had initially expected. The analysts also lowered their capex estimate for Sprint for the current quarter to just $1 billion, down from $1.5 billion, but the firm didn’t change its estimates for Sprint’s total 2018 capex spending. The firm’s analysts in a note to investors explained that they aren’t changing their full-year estimates for Sprint because “as management stated at a recent industry conference capex will be back-end loaded due to timing on its tri-band upgrades and macro footprint expansion.” Nonetheless, it’s noteworthy that the Oppenheimer analysts raised their capex forecasts for Verizon and AT&T for the full year 2018 because both carriers are edging toward their promised 5G service launches later this year. The increases are not necessarily a surprise. Both Verizon and AT&T spent more on their networks in the first quarter of this year than some Wall Street analysts had expected.