AT&T’s dividend still looks safe

Article Excerpt

AT&T INC. $22 is a buy. The company (New York symbol T; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 7.1 billion; Market cap: $156.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.att.com) is the largest wireless (cellphone) carrier in the U.S., with 115.4 million subscribers (excluding mobile devices such as tablets). It also has 6.1 million traditional phone customers and 15.35 million high-speed Internet users. AT&T continues to expand its ultrafast 5G wireless and fibre-optic Internet networks. It plans to earmark between $21 billion and $22 billion for network upgrades in 2024. Even after those outlays, its free cash flow (regular cash flow less capital expenditures) will range between $17 billion and $18 billion this year. That will let it maintain the current dividend rate of $1.11 a share, which yields a high 5.0%; AT&T’s aggregate dividend payments will total roughly $8.3 billion in 2024. Improving efficiency will also cut $2 billion from its annual costs by mid-2026. AT&T is a buy. buy. …