T - AT&T Inc.
| Previous Close | 37.15 |
| Open | 37.30 |
| Bid | 37.81 x 3100 |
| Ask | 37.83 x 900 |
| Day's Range | 37.18 - 38.01 |
| 52 Week Range | 26.80 - 38.75 |
| Volume | 79,104,102 |
| Avg. Volume | 32,661,971 |
| Market Cap | 277.008B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.76 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 15.99 |
| EPS (TTM) | 2.37 |
| Earnings Date | Oct 23, 2019 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 2.04 (5.49%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-07-09 |
| 1y Target Est | 36.12 |
- Reuters
UPDATE 2-Billy Porter, 'Game of Thrones' stars arrive for television's Emmys
LOS ANGELES, Sept 22 (Reuters) - "Pose" star Billy Porter, sporting a crystal-studded black suit and an enormous hat, along with "Games of Thrones" stars Peter Dinklage, Maisie Williams and Gwendoline Christie were among early arrivals for television's Emmy awards on Sunday, where HBO's medieval fantasy series aims to crown its final season with a fourth best drama series statuette. Director Ava DuVernay and the five men known as the Central Park Five, whose wrongful arrests in New York three decades ago are dramatized in the Emmy-nominated "When They See Us," also walked the purple carpet in Los Angeles, along with "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" lead actress Rachel Brosnahan.
- Reuters
Who will wear the Emmy crown? New faces battle old favorites for top TV awards
LOS ANGELES, Sept 22 (Reuters) - "Game of Thrones" looks set to crown its final season with another best drama series Emmy on Sunday despite an array of new contenders jostling for the most prestigious awards in television. On a night that could see old favorites prevailing over the biggest lineup of first-time nominees in eight years, HBO political satire "Veep" and returning Emmy champ "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" from Amazon Studios, along with their stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Rachel Brosnahan, are seen as frontrunners in the contest for best comedy series. Unless, that is, British comedian Phoebe Waller-Bridge can pull off an upset with one or both of her buzzy shows - female-driven BBC America thriller "Killing Eve" and Amazon comedy "Fleabag," which drew 20 Emmy nominations between them.
- Bloomberg
AT&T Has Few Options for Its Slumping DirecTV. None Are Great
(Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc. and activist investor Elliott Management Corp. seem to agree on one thing: DirecTV, the phone giant’s shrinking satellite service, is a drag on the company. But solving the problem won’t be easy.AT&T acknowledges the faster-than-predicted decline at DirecTV. But Randall Stephenson, chief executive officer and architect of the company’s $48.5 billion purchase, sees the service as one of two key businesses -- the other being mobile phones -- that will allow the company to pipe entertainment and advertising to millions of customers.The problem is that AT&T lost 2.3 million TV customers in the past year, and expects to lose up to 350,000 more this quarter, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said at a Sept. 11 investor conference. The division, including the online streaming service DirecTV Now, is being sued for allegedly misleading investors about its subscriber numbers, and its value today is below what AT&T paid for the business four years ago.Stephenson met with officials of Elliott Management on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. In a letter to AT&T last week, Elliott said it had acquired a $3.2 billion take in the phone company, highlighted areas for improvement and raised the possibility of divesting DirecTV.Here are some of the options that AT&T has for DirecTV, along with the pros and cons.Dish DealAT&T and Dish Network Corp. -- the other major satellite TV provider -- are suffering the steepest subscriber losses in the pay-TV industry. And in June they said they are open to a combination.But the creation of pay-TV colossus with almost 30 million subscribers would almost certainly face regulatory opposition, even today when viewers have so many new options available, like Netflix and new streaming services from media giants including Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp.“That’s been tried from a regulatory perspective,” Stephens said on Sept. 11. “It hasn’t been successful, and I don’t know that there is any change in that regulatory perspective.”Still, the rationale of pairing two declining businesses has its fans.“It’s complicated but not impossible,” said Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with New Street Research. “On the right terms, it could get financing.”There would be benefits to combining the businesses: With scale comes negotiating leverage, lower content costs and potentially lower overhead. The cash generation is attractive. And add a dynamic management team, and it could be run successfully, Chaplin said.But there are also concerns: Depending on how a deal is structured, AT&T could lose a key distribution arm for its emerging media strategy and suffer a crippling loss of cash flow. DirecTV has $25.5 billion in annual revenue and generates about $4.5 billion in free cash flow, according to estimates by Walt Piecyk, an analyst at LightShed Partners LLC.“Markets always believed they bought this declining asset with steady cash flows as a stop-gap measure to strengthen their balance sheet and credit metrics,” said Todd Lowenstein, managing director of Highmark Capital Management Inc.Spinoff or SaleAT&T could separate its TV business in a variety of other ways, including a sale to private equity investors or a spinoff to shareholders.The proceeds of a sale could help AT&T reduce some of its $194.5 billion in total debt. That would provide the biggest boost to its credit rating, according to a report Friday from Neil Begley, a Moody’s Corp. analyst.Similarly, AT&T could distribute stock in DirecTV to its current shareholders via an an exchange offer. That would reduce AT&T’s stock outstanding and trim its dividend burden, Begley wrote.As part of such a transaction, DirecTV could also take on debt and pay AT&T a dividend to reduce its own borrowing and compensate for the loss of cash flow. Such an arrangement is “probably one of the more credit favorable ones after an outright sale,” Begley said.Again, with a deal AT&T would potentially lose a customer base for its advertising and media products. And even freed of DirecTV, the company will still have a lot on its plate. AT&T faces a heavy spending burden for 5G network expansion, its dividend and further debt reduction. The company’s newly acquired WarnerMedia division is ramping up the production of movies and TV shows to support its new streaming efforts.“A sale or spin could make some strategic and financial sense given the shifting competitive landscape, but they still need to be laser focused on execution to succeed,” Lowenstein said.Hang OnDallas-based AT&T knew it was buying a mature satellite TV business with a limited shelf life when it acquired DirecTV. Stephenson’s plan, given enough time, was to gradually serve customers through broadband connections, as it’s trying to do now with the new AT&T TV offer, a lower-cost cable-like service.Those customers, along with the 77 million regular monthly wireless subscribers, would provide a big base to sell advertising and additional services, like the upcoming video streaming service HBO Max.Making progress on those fronts is crucial. Left as is, AT&T’s TV business could see steeper declines in pay-TV subscribers. Faster revenue losses will make it tougher to meet those other cash needs.“If AT&T can’t find an attractive exit from DirecTV, then they will continue to squeeze as much free cash flow as they can from the TV business,” Piecyk said. “If they can leverage network improvements, push back on content pricing and slow subscriber losses, it would certainly advance their strategy.”To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Market Realist
Changing Streaming Landscape Spells Trouble for Hulu
The online streaming landscape was once owned by a few companies, largely Netflix and Hulu, but each of which offered a different type of content.
- Market Realist
Netflix CEO Sees “A Whole New World” of Streaming
Netflix (NFLX) used to dominate the SVOD streaming services market. It was a leader with few competitors and a subscriber base of over 150 million.
- Market Realist
What Netflix CEO Thinks about Apple, Disney, and NBC
According to Reuters, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (NFLX) said companies like Disney (DIS) and Apple (AAPL) will boost already rising production costs.
- Barrons.com
Letters to the Editor of Barron’s
Views on the railroad industry, the endgame for bonds, Bitcoin ETFs, a recombined ViacomCBS, and gold buying by Russian and China
- Market Realist
Where Could T-Mobile Stock Go from Here?
T-Mobile (TMUS) stock rose about 1.1% on Thursday and closed the trading day at $81.00. Year-to-date, T-Mobile stock has gained 27.3%.
- Zacks
ETFs in Focus as Netflix Bags Global Rights for Seinfeld
Netflix boosts its content portfolio with the new show. We highlight the ETFs that can gain from this move.
- Market Realist
AT&T’s Plans to Return Capital to Its Stockholders
This week, AT&T; CEO Randall Stephenson noted that AT&T; (T) is on track to reduce its leverage multiple to about 2.5x by the end of this year.
- American City Business Journals
Duke Energy makes renewables deal with AT&T
The 350-megawatt Frontier II Windpower project is Duke Energy Renewables' largest single wind farm to date.
- Simply Wall St.
Is There An Opportunity With AT&T Inc.'s (NYSE:T) 50% Undervaluation?
Does the September share price for AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the...
- Market Realist
Can AT&T Stock Add Value to Your Portfolio?
AT&T; stock rose about 1.06% on Thursday and closed the trading day at $37.15. Jim Cramer suggested buying the stock. AT&T; has a mean target price of $36.12.
- Barrons.com
Are Streaming Rights for ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Really Worth $600 Million?
The hottest trend in capital allocation is to pay for streaming rights to old television shows ahead of a coming war for subscribers.
- American City Business Journals
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with activist Elliott Management, report says
AT&T; Inc.'s top boss took a meeting with Elliott Management a little more than a week after the activist investor first publicized its letter pushing against the company's strategic choices, according to a report.
- Market Realist
Could DIRECTV and Dish Merge if AT&T Drops It?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Elliott Management has proposed that AT&T; divest assets including its satellite TV business, DIRECTV, to enhance shareholder value.
- PR Newswire
Duke Energy Renewables announces contract with AT&T for Frontier Windpower II in Oklahoma
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy (DUK), today announced that AT&T has signed a 15-year, 160-megawatt (MW) virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) for Frontier Windpower II. Duke Energy Renewables is building the 350-MW Frontier II in Kay County, Okla. Ball Corporation previously announced its commitment to Frontier II with a 15-year VPPA for 161 MW of the project.
- Business Wire
AT&T Announces Renewable Energy Purchases will Surpass 1.5 Gigawatts of Clean Energy at Climate Week NYC 2019
New agreements are Part of Company-wide Commitment to Help Address Climate Change
- Investopedia
AT&T Rally Could Stall in the Fourth Quarter
AT&T stock has lifted to a 52-week high, but the rally could end soon, giving way to a multi-month correction.
- Zacks
BCE and TELUS Extend LTE-M Coverage With AT&T Collaboration
By collaborating with AT&T (T) to activate LTE-M roaming facilities, both Bell, a subsidiary of BCE (BCE), and TELUS (TU) have unlocked newer business opportunities for its users for accelerated growth in the IoT space.
- Financial Times
AT&T/Elliott: diminished cord
The hedge fund took a $3.2bn stake in AT&T last week and is waging a campaign for an overhaul of the business. This includes a sale of DirecTV, the cable TV business acquired by AT&T back in 2014 for $67.1bn including debt. It is easy to see why Elliott thinks DirecTV should go.
- Yahoo Finance
Ken Burns makes great films but says his business model is no good
Documentary film director Ken Burns discusses his country music documentary and why PBS gives him more freedom than a streaming service would.
- Financial Times
The fraught debate about the nature of China
Diligent Swampians might recall that in my last Swamp Notes I took up cudgels against those who compare China to Nazi Germany . Though I did not name the person who triggered my note, he requested the ...
- TheStreet.com
[video]Dish Unlikely to Wind Up Acquiring DirecTV - Report
Dish Network is more than likely not dishing into purchasing DirecTV, sources close to Dish CEO Charlie Ergen told the New York Post.
