AT&T sued by US SEC for the disclosure of non-public data to Wall Street analysts

AT&T will have to go to court as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a case against it. It was reported that the issue is about the company’s move to disclose information to analysts when it is prohibited.

Reason for SEC’s legal action against AT&T

As per Fox Business, the SEC sued AT&T for the disclosure of non-public information that happened a few years ago. It was revealed that the telecommunication firm told Wall Street analysts about its sales data right before the quarterly results release.

In the agency’s filing, it was said that the prohibited reveal of the data served as an early warning to help the company avoid having its results fall short of Wall Street expectations. The complaint that was filed in federal court in Manhattan further stated that in March 2016, AT&T was worried that a heavy decline in the sales of smartphones will make them miss Wall Street estimates for its first quarter.

Those who revealed the information were identified as AT&T’s investors' relation executives that include Kent Evans, Michael Black and Christopher Womack. They have privately called the analysts at more or less 20 firms and told them about the inside smartphone sales data.

The SEC also stated in the filing that the trio explained to their guests about the impact that data would have on its revenue metrics. As a result, the analysts lowered their revenue estimates.

The government said the data should have remained private and cannot be divulged to the public so it clearly violated securities laws.

AT&T denied the allegation

In response to the lawsuit, Reuters reported that AT&T denied the allegations hurled by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Through a statement, the company said it did not reveal any “non-public information" to the analysts. The company added it will be fighting the lawsuit and said it has made clear that the decreasing sales had no effects on its revenues.

“Not only did AT&T publicly disclose this trend on multiple occasions before the analyst calls in question, but AT&T also made clear that the declining phone sales had no material impact on its earnings,” the company said via press release.