Buy AT&T up to $39

By Jim Pearce • June 23, 2014

For reasons explained in today’s edition of Smart Tech 50 Weekly Movers, we are initiating a long position in AT&T (NYSE: T) in our Investments Portfolio up to $39. The company’s recent announcement regarding its intention to acquire DirecTV indicates to us that it has an innogration strategy that is not dependent on going head-to-head with Verizon, but will beat up on much smaller competitors instead. Now paying a dividend yield of more than 5 percent, AT&T is the type of business that should hold up particularly well as the Fed follows through on its promise to discontinue its Quantitative Easing program by the end of this year. As Warren Buffet once famously said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” The tide will be going out fast on a lot of stocks during the second half of this year, but high-yielding AT&T won’t be one of them.

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Lynne Schmitt

At the present I have customer issues with AT&T. I am just trying get U-Verse Internet and Voice installed per the contract written in April by our local AT&T store.

It got so bad that I wrote to Mr. Randall Stephenson, CEO.

So far, all employees lie, do not document anything, do not follow through.

The contact from the Office of the President stated that she had not even read my letter. AND she we not responsible for anything anyone else at AT&T had promised or said.

I bought AT&T a long time ago … so I hope that the management is better with Big Issues than little customers

Jim Pearce

Jim Pearce

Lynne,
I’m afriad that is now the norm with most utility providers. When Verizon laid Fios cable thorughout my neighborhood a few years ago their contractor used cheap grass sead to cover the areas they dug through, including my front yard. The following year I had a bad case of Berumuda grass that my wife and I dug up and replaced with sod. When I asked Verizon to reimburse me for the cost of the sod they said to take it up with the contractor, who of course said to take it up with Verizon; neither one of them ever paid up. Several years ago I got a bill from Washington Gas for more than $800 for a single month, which was more than triple the single most costly month I had ever had with them. Many months of dialogue culminated in a hearing before the Virginia utilities commission, which ruled that since I couldn’t prove the bill was incorrrect I had to pay it, regardless of how absurd it seemed (btw, they destroyed the meter in question before I had a chance to have it examined, which made it impossible to determine if the meter was faulty). That’s the problem with most utilities; since you don’t really have a lot of choice they can get away with slipshod service. I’m not recommending AT&T becuase I think they offer wonderful service, but I do believe investors will find their dividend yield and predictable revenue stream very attractive once QE is over.
Jim

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