The two behemoths of the mobile and smartphone world, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ), are getting bigger and faster – scooping up customers at an amazing rate and leaving smaller providers in the dust.
And that’s great news for retired or about-to-retire investors who are looking for reliable companies with great dividends and, most importantly, growing dividends.
Dividend growth has to be a key consideration in your selection of income-producing stocks. It is absolutely essential. And these two are racking up numbers that all but guarantee growth for a long time.
AT&T is currently paying a 5.4% dividend, and Verizon has a 4.8% yield. Both payouts are way above almost all other blue chips, and both are trouncing their competition.
AT&T and Verizon are way ahead of everyone else when it comes to LTE, the new high-speed wireless broadband service. 50% of Verizon’s data is on their LTE equipment – and data is where all the money is in mobile.
AT&T saw an 81% increase in its new fiber broadband use year over year, is activating 3.5 million new iPhones a quarter, and over the long term is expected to raise its dividend 7.1% a year. They even paid it during the 2008 to 2009 debacle, when most other companies cut dividends or eliminated them entirely.
Verizon has a dividend history as solid as AT&T, and recently bumped it up another 3%. And despite the weak earnings they reported this week, this one is for real.
But what might be most valuable to retired investors, but less obvious to most, is they both sport a beta of .43. That means they have less than half the volatility of the broad market.
That should help keep investors in place when things get rough. And that’s the real secret to making money in any kind of stock investment.
Above-average yield… solid dividend growth… and a low beta.
Jim Cramer called them bonds with upside, and while they may seem like obvious picks, most investors don’t own them.
These two are custom-designed for retirement portfolios looking for growth and income.