T-Mobile stock tumbled 4.2% in premarket trading Thursday, touching $183, after the carrier reported Q2 results that beat on profit but fell short where it mattered most to traders: the top line.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $22.8 billion, a solid 7.9% jump year-over-year, but just a hair below the $22.9 billion analysts had penciled in. That $100 million gap was enough to overshadow an adjusted EPS of $2.99, which cleared the $2.54 consensus by a wide margin. Markets, as they often do, punished the miss and largely ignored the beat.

What the Numbers Actually Showed

Service revenues grew 9% year-over-year to $19.0 billion, with postpaid service revenues up 13% to $15.9 billion. Core adjusted EBITDA climbed 12% to $9.5 billion. Adjusted free cash flow reached $4.8 billion for the quarter, up 4% from a year ago.

On the subscriber side, T-Mobile added 277,000 net postpaid accounts, edging past Wall Street's estimate of 268,300. That said, the figure represented a 13% decline year-over-year, a detail that didn't go unnoticed. Postpaid average revenue per account ticked up 2% to $152.91, a modest but consistent climb in per-customer monetization. Results also absorbed $146 million in UScellular merger-related costs, or about $0.14 per share.

For context, T-Mobile is the second of the three major U.S. wireless carriers to report this cycle. AT&T posted a similar pattern: earnings beat, revenue miss. Verizon was set to report before Friday's open.

Management raised full-year adjusted free cash flow guidance to a range of $18.4 to $18.8 billion, up from the prior $18.1 to $18.7 billion. Net cash from operating activities guidance moved up as well, to $28.4 to $28.8 billion. The company kept its full-year postpaid net account addition target intact at 950,000 to 1.05 million, and reiterated core adjusted EBITDA guidance of $37.1 to $37.5 billion. Capital expenditure plans remain at roughly $10 billion for the year.

The raised guidance signals management confidence. The premarket selloff signals the market wanted more.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.