The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing AT&T and three of its investor relations executives. The lawsuit says industry analysts were told about the telecom giant’s sales data before it released quarterly results in April 2016 to avoid falling short of Wall Street expectations. Companies that report results that fall short of analyst forecasts can suffer a sell-off in their shares. Dallas-based AT&T said in a statement that it did not tell analysts “material nonpublic information” and that it will fight the suit.
