Anyone nibbling on T?

[stephenson]

Almost 8% dividend ... huge business base ... am I missing something in the basics?

 

[pb4uski]

According to Bard:

Is AT&T's business base decaying?

AT&T's business base is indeed decaying. The company has been losing customers for years, and its revenue has been declining. In 2022, AT&T lost 2.1 million wireless customers, and its total revenue declined by 7%.

There are a number of reasons for AT&T's declining business base. One reason is the rise of competition from wireless carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon. These carriers have been offering more competitive pricing and better service, which has led to AT&T losing customers.

Another reason for AT&T's declining business base is the shift to streaming services. More and more people are cutting the cord and canceling their cable subscriptions. This has led to a decline in AT&T's video revenue.

AT&T is trying to address its declining business base by investing in new growth areas. The company is investing in wireless 5G, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. However, it remains to be seen whether these investments will be enough to reverse AT&T's decline.

Here are some of the factors that are contributing to AT&T's decaying business base:

• The rise of competition from wireless carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon.
• The shift to streaming services.
• The decline of the traditional landline business.
• The company's debt load.
• The company's aging infrastructure.

It is too early to say whether AT&T's business base will continue to decay. However, the company faces some significant challenges that will need to be addressed if it wants to reverse its decline.

 

[njhowie]

VZ is the better investment at this time. It's dividend is also 8%.

Almost 8% dividend ... huge business base ... am I missing something in the basics?

You could have said the same thing when the shares were in the $30s.

 

[HarveyS]

And…..Potential liabilities related to lead cable abatement. Both V and T. I would stay away from both.

 

[jurgs01]

I think they got oversold based on news. I bought both.

 

[Amethyst]

My late husband owned T since 1984. (Of course, he also got involved with LU and rode that to the bottom). The dividend, which used to be phenomenal, was cut in half two years ago.

CMCSA is another one I wonder about. Modest dividend, stock seems to go up and down.

 

[target2019]

We inherited CMCSA, T, VZ and Frontier. I got to watch them grow (or not) during the time the in-laws held the stocks. First position started in late 1980's.

Growth expectation for these companies is not good. The amount of competition has increased in this century. Since 2018 I've watched and read about these companies. Dividend growth slowed, or was cut.

Eventually I decided to only have these companies in passive mutual funds.

https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/att-stock-is-30-year-low-is-it-buy

 

[bigcmagor]

The experience of cancelling At&t service at my parents house when they moved into an assisted living facility went so poorly that I sold At&t stock my mother owned that was purchased in the 1800's by her grandmother. No one who treats customers like they do will survive in business.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

The experience of cancelling At&t service at my parents house when they moved into an assisted living facility went so poorly that I sold At&t stock my mother owned that was purchased in the 1800's by her grandmother. No one who treats customers like they do will survive in business.

Beat me to it, my AT&T customer service experience has been bad (decades apart -only went back when the iPhone was exclusive). I think all telecoms are good at bad service but they stand out and I think is part of the reason for their market decline. Now, I think they have negative momentum and will decline until bought out by competition or a private investment group/hedge fund hoping to extract value.

 

[imbatman]

I bought T and VZ both on Monday's lead cable sell off news. I don't love the companies and definitely no growth to be had, but at this valuation and 8% dividend, I am happy for just the income and treading water (with the possibility of recovery in price - the market is UP 19% and T is DOWN 23%....things are bad but smells overdone).

 

[Cayman]

The experience of cancelling At&t service at my parents house when they moved into an assisted living facility went so poorly that I sold At&t stock my mother owned that was purchased in the 1800's by her grandmother. No one who treats customers like they do will survive in business.

Same experience, AT&T customer service was so poor during a move 2 years ago. Multiple customer service reps in several centers - all very poor.

 

[Trailwalker]

T’s price has fallen in half since the late 1990’s. I don’t see any reason that it will turn around.

 

[stephenson]

Good points all.

To my recent service experience - it was related to ATT fiber into our part of the county. My experience was incredibly good - and, the service speed and reliability is the best I've every had, include Verizon FIOS.

Hundreds of neighbors (big neighborhood) have/are switching from the previousl ISP - all report excellent service. This is just a small sample, and only on the ISP data side.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Almost 8% dividend ... huge business base ... am I missing something in the basics?

You're missing the growth potential. AT&T might pay a nice dividend but the share price has dropped consistently.

Suppose you own 500 shares of AT&T. The last dividend was July 7th and was $.278. Your dividend would have been $139. (This is a 7.12% dividend.)

The previous dividend was on April 6th and was $.278. Again, your dividend payment would have been $139. (This is 5.65% dividend.)

But on April 6th the share price was $19.65; on July 7th it was $15.61. You have just lost 20.6% in share price on your "almost 8% dividend payer." Your 500 shares made $278 in dividends and lost $2,020 in share value. Net loss of -$1,742 in value.

It could be argued that the stock price has bottomed out, but who knows? Look at the five year chart--there were plenty of places where it looked like it had hit bottom. Now they are facing a problem with lead-sheathed transmission cables possibly needing to be replaced. That's not going to be cheap.

Bottom line is that a dividend payer that consistently loses share price is a loser. There are a lot of them out there. Verizon comes to mind.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Only you can make the decision to start a position.
I like to look at past performance, because history has a tendency of repeating itself.

I'm guessing many an investor was lured in by the low valuation/high dividend yield over the past 2 decades.
Oddly enough, your ER 'handle' is the same as the last CEO to step down after driving the company into the ground for approximately 13 years.
His punishment was a golden parachute of biblical proportions.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackke...-gold-plated-retirement-plan/?sh=1fc2676259bd

 

[audreyh1]

Whatever happened with Lucent? I don’t remember.

OK: 1996-2006 when it was absorbed into Nokia.