T-Mobile expected to face tough times ahead, lag behind AT&T, Verizon
T-Mobile is downgraded by an analyst who sees further weakness ahead compared to its rivals.
You've probably never heard of Brandon Nispal. He is a stock analyst with KeyBanc, and late Tuesday, he downgraded the shares of T-Mobile to Underweight from Sector Weight. What Nispal is saying is that he expects T-Mobile shares will underperform the shares of other companies in the same industry. From July 2020 to July 2025, T-Mobile's shares have risen approximately 115% compared with a roughly 22% hike for AT&T and an approximate 21% decline for Verizon.
But looking at just 2025 alone, the picture has changed. T-Mobile was up 6.9% for this year before Wednesday's action. AT&T was up 24% in 2025, and Verizon's shares were up 7.7% for the year. Again, this was before Wednesday, when investors responded to Nispal's rating change by dropping T-Mobile's stock price by 1.8%. And the selling continued Thursday with T-Mobile's shares down $9.33 or 3.9%. Since Wednesday morning, T-Mobile's valuation has declined by $8.7 billion. Don't put up a GoFundMe for the carrier as it is still worth $259 billion as of Thursday afternoon.
With updated numbers, we can see that Nispal's prediction has already been coming true. T-Mobile is up 3.96% for 2025, trailing Verizon's year-to-date gain of 4.63% and AT&T's whopping 21.33% gain for the year so far. The analyst expects T-Mobile to continue to underperform as wireless providers start offering bundled packages to consumers that include mobile data, broadband, pay TV, and phone lines all under one contract.
The KeyBanc analyst says that T-Mobile doesn't have the presence in fiber internet to compete with its rivals. And both AT&T and Verizon added fiber as the former purchased Lumen's fiber business for $5.75 billion in May. In September last year, Verizon paid $20 billion for Frontier Communications.
Nispel also believes that economic weakness could lead T-Mobile shares lower. With carriers reporting higher churn rates this year, consumers appear ready to shop around for the best deal even from MVNO/pre-paid carriers that they would have avoided before.
Also a factor, T-Mobile has had its dirty laundry aired. The company, once called the "Un-carrier" because it was known for relieving consumer pain points unlike its rivals, has become no better than Verizon and AT&T when it comes to its reputation and dealings with the public.
Popular stories
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: