Investors will have to wait a little longer to find out how much AT&T spent in a recent record-setting auction for spectrum and how its deleveraging plans will be impacted. As part of its earnings report in late January, AT&T told investors it was still in the quiet period for the FCC's spectrum auction and could not [...]

Federal Realty on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings and maintained its dividend as rent collections continued improving. The shopping center REIT collected 89% of the rent it billed during the fourth quarter, up from 85% in the third quarter and 72% in the second quarter. However, management expects 2021 to be another tough year. About 85% of Federal's [...]

Sysco remains challenged by the pandemic as restaurants (more than 60% of revenue), schools, hotels, and other foodservice customers continue operating at relatively low capacity levels. The food distributor's revenue has gradually recovered following a 60% decline in late March last year, but sales were still off 23% last quarter. While the operating environment will [...]

Verizon closed out 2020 with solid financial results.  While sales contracted a modest 3% with minor pandemic related headwinds, earnings grew slightly thanks to margin improvements. Cash flows remained strong and investors were rewarded with Verizon’s 14th consecutive annual dividend increase. Overall, Verizon had a routine year despite the chaos found elsewhere as the world slogged through [...]

Magellan on Tuesday reported earnings, closing out a year which management described as having "the most challenging industry and economic conditions experienced in our 20-year history as a public company." Magellan's units slumped more than 4% on the update after management's guidance indicated that this year may not be much better. The firm's distributable cash flow (DCF) [...]

Exxon believes its cash flow will cover capital expenditures and the dividend this year even if Brent oil prices average as low as $45 per barrel and its downstream and chemical businesses maintain their lowest margins in at least a decade. As part of the firm's earnings presentation on Tuesday, management laid out capital allocation priorities through [...]

Chevron on Friday reported fourth-quarter earnings and showed continued progress improving the sustainability of its dividend in a low oil price environment. Driven by capital spending reductions and lower operating expenses, Chevron's breakeven oil price required to cover its capital program and dividend was under $50 per barrel for the second quarter in a row. That's down [...]

Macro headwinds, slow-moving restructuring plans, and mounting legal liabilities have weighed on 3M's performance since CEO Michael Roman took the top job in July 2018. On Tuesday, the industrial conglomerate reported earnings which gave investors more confidence in 3M's plan to return to profitable growth following sales and earnings declines the last two years. Organic sales grew 6% in [...]

PPL last August announced plans to sell its U.K. utility operations, which generate a little over half of the firm's earnings. No deal has been announced yet, but the fate of PPL's regular dividend depends on how much of these earnings management can replace by using some of the proceeds from a potential sale to [...]

IBM shares slumped 10% on Friday following the company's fourth-quarter earnings report. IBM's organic sales fell 8%, marking the fourth straight quarterly decline, but investors were most concerned by a 7% drop in the Cloud & Cognitive Software segment. This high-margin division accounts for roughly 50% of IBM's gross profit and will become an even larger [...]

In December, International Paper announced plans to spin off the firm's printing papers business into a standalone, publicly traded company. The spin-off is expected to be completed late in the third quarter of 2021, at which time shares in the spin-off will be distributed to International Paper investors. The transaction is expected to be tax-free for U.S. [...]

The defensive utility sector has trailed the S&P 500 by more than 15% over the past year. Shares of Con Edison have been especially weak, slumping around 15% since mid-November to reach a level not far from their pandemic lows seen last March. With Con Edison's valuation looking unusually cheap compared to historical norms, some [...]

Owens & Minor stunned many investors in October 2018 when it announced a 71% dividend cut. Shares fell more than 40% on the news as the medical supplies distributor broke its streak of paying uninterrupted dividends since 1977. The company's core customers (hospitals) were putting increased price pressure on the firm in an effort to [...]

Pfizer on Friday announced a 2.6% dividend increase for the first quarter of 2021, raising its quarterly payout from 38 cents per share to 39 cents.  However, the company still plans to lower its dividend to reflect the spin-off of its off-patent drug business (about 20% of profits), which closed in November after combining with generic drug [...]

AT&T on Friday kept its dividend frozen at 52 cents per share for the first quarter of 2021, unchanged from the prior four quarters.  This marked the first time in company history that the telecom, media, and entertainment giant has held its dividend flat for more than a year. To retain its status as a [...]