AT&T’s Grim Future

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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AT&T’s Grim Future

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AT&T’s CEO John Stankey says his company is best off out of the media business. From the standpoint of its choppy contribution to earnings and its debt load, he is right. However, that leaves AT&T to rely on the highly competitive broadband business. It is among the most competitive sectors in the United States, and AT&T has yet to prove it can be on the winning side.

AT&T’s shares are off 20% in the past year. By contrast, the shares of Verizon are off 7%. AT&T probably suffers from the belief that its management is among the worst among America’s large companies, which is another reason for pessimism.

The wireless broadband business is brutal. The introduction of 5G has caused a rush to add and retain customers. AT&T faces not just Verizon. Rival T-Mobile’s shares have risen 3% in the past year, which is a sign that investors believe it is in the best shape among the three competitors.
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Among stock analysts, AT&T’s median share price forecast over the next year is $28. At just over $24 apiece on last look, its shares are forecast to barely budge. That means even professional investors look at AT&T’s future as grim.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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