AT&T Earnings Preview (T, VZ)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is due to report its quarterly earnings for its fourth quarter on Thursday morning and estimates are $0.45 EPS and $31.94 billion in sales.  Shares are still hanging north of $30.00 so far with a $30.21 close on Wednesday (after a $0.12 gain) and the 52-week range is $27.20 to $31.94. The wild card is that this quarterly report is going to include a monster of a charge of $4 billion or more due to that break-up fee paid to T-Mobile from the failed merger.

Rival telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reported a $2 billion loss for its quarter due to a pension adjustment.  That being said, investors are already braced to absorb headlines that come out early in the morning showing a deep loss due to the

What will be interesting to see is just how AT&T is treated with a dividend that is very close to 6% and now the highest of the 30 DJIA components. Shares had recovered throughout December and even in the first half of this January.

Analysts have a consensus price target objective of $31.70 and we only see options traders pricing in a move of up to 2% in either direction based upon the put and call options expiring in February.

As far as the share price of $30.21 and the AT&T chart, there is near-term resistance of $30.50 and the 50-day moving average is all the way down at $29.05 and the 200-day moving average is all the way down at $28.89.

JON C. OGG