AT&T announced it will buy back about 7 per cent of its stock--400 million shares--at a price of almost $15.2 billion (according to Monday's closing price of $37.90). The buy-back will be completed by the end of 2009. The company also is raising its dividend by about 12 per cent, or 5 cents, to 40 cents per share. That dividend will be payable on Feb. 1, 2008, and you've got until Jan. 10 to jump on the bandwagon if you want your piece.
Speaking of bandwagons, it took a while for Wall Street to notice what AT&T has accomplished in recent years. One stock-picker on CNBC yesterday noted that "T" is a good bet because Ma Bell is basically being re-built. I'd argue that what AT&T is building is far bigger, broader, more competitively-re-engineered and altogether more interesting than the Ma Bell of old. I'd call it Ma Bell 2.0, but that doesn't cover it. How about Ma Bell 5.0?
For more:
- read this report in TheStreet.com
Related articles:
- AT&T last week said it sees big future growth in Asia