I would love to hear the rational for keeping the stock.
15 replies (most recent on top)
To my friend @1yrc, I will out myself as the loooong poster. A troll, hardly, patient investor, definitely. I will wager most of you have never held a dividend stock, or mutual fund for more than a few years, if even that. Or through four Bear Markets. The Recession from 10 years back scared most of you out of the market so you don’t have any clue, or long term experience, of watching dividends build your stock shares, and mutual fund shares into a nice retirement portfolio.
Early 80’s Boomers will verify my truth, that as we committed funds to our 401K’s our selections were very limited, T stock was almost the only game in town, so I and many like me led with that.
But here’s what my ‘business school’ expert didn’t bother to research:
*The expert didn’t know that we got stock shares, from seven separate companies when the T divestiture took place: Cingular, Lucent, SW Bell etc.
*The expert was unaware that early T’s received multiple StockOption offers over the years.
*The Expert was unaware that we were the beneficiaries of not one, or two, but three stock splits over the decades....very sweet indeed
No stock travels a straight line up: BAC, KO, PFE, MRK, ORCL, GE, C, BP & IBM....all nine are Dow 30 stocks. Every stock has failed to reach its former high mark within an 18-21 year period, depending on the individual stock. This would be a representation of 30% of the entire S&P.
So over 35 years I received a ton of benefits from T’s stock adventures, and like 30% of the Dow we really haven’t gone anywhere but to suggest we are a stand alone situation is disingenuous.
Holding this stock ‘blindly’ oh contraire, my dividends and vision are very clear to me indeed. I will enjoy reaping the benefits of being in the right place at the right time for the next 20...gotta play to win!
One last thing, Rational(e) is spelled with an E my uneducated ‘business expert.’ As in my justifications for the choices I made, that’s my Rationale!!!
I am thinking of selling when/if it goes a bit higher. I like the dividend but with AT&T always buying new companies and not running the entire company properly I think the stock will never go up like Verizon does. If it hits $40 again they will probably buy another company and then the stock will go down again.
I also don't think Time Warner will do good because they an "old phone company" person running it. Stankey already told HBO he wants a lot more content for ads. You just don't tell creative Hollywood people to come up with more quality content. Creative people don't work that way. The the Hollywood types would flip out if they were told they had to watch all of those videos they forced me as a first-level to watch. Just my opinion.
Warning....Troll in action, you will Notice the looooooooong explanations and rational for holding stock x 20 years? This troll needs to go back to business school, lol
Stock down the last ten years while the market practically doubled. Randy not only drags down the company but we got credit yesterday for helping drag down the whole market
id--t
gotta love the stupidity of blinding holding a stock for 20 years. Especially one that is down the past 10 years.
@1wzb, wow such a deep thinker and a snappy come back. If I pass a tomb stone with that quote, I will know it’s you!
I’m not a large T investor, but I understand the philosophy....the irony is, you pretty much made his point! I’m just as certain that you won’t understand how!
nothing is guaranteed , id--t
If some of my 401K $$ is invested in T, and it is.....and I don’t plan on touching it for 15-20 years, and I’m not....I’m going to enjoy the 5-6% reinvested dividends that a savings acct, CD or Treasury note just
can’t satisfy.
As one poster mentioned, shorting stocks takes that knowledge and/or willingness to gamble, I’ll respectfully pass. And If I had picked a top 30 Dow stock like Exxon, that sounds like a sure bet, but what has that multi national company done in the past 20....it’s been stuck in a narrow trading range but still puts out dividends along the way. Many dividend stocks are exactly like this, they sacrifice growth for div’s....i am satisfied with that philosophy.
Yes, I’d like better movement with T, but who will stand up and give me a Guaranteed stock pick over the next 20 years then back it with their own money if it sours?
I’m the Tortoise in this race, just a long distance runner.
Randy will announce raising dividend one more penny after 4q layoffs are signed , sealed , and delivered.
I LOVE previous predictions, long, obscured,and full of bull$hit, After Wednesday’s rout, which was worsened by a broader market slide, the stock is now down 22 percent this year
Amusing hearing the especulators talk, what else would they say? Maybe next year or the year after, or next decade?, etc investors are avoiding this stock like a plague, still $30 + /10 years straight
@VNM57QS, the decisions for doing anything really comes from experience, patience, perspective and yes...perhaps a little bit of gamble. You shorted T and did very well, I’m pleased. You too took a gamble, short term but still a gamble and maybe some luck thrown in.
I did the very same....long term over multiple decades, into multiple vehicles inside my 401k (T being one of them) like clock work, I dollar cost averaged into them...into T, and that whole time I was getting full company match, which bought more shares and the dividends of course got reinvested, which bought even more shares.
Experience was what I was learning along the way, patience was something I always had and perspective is what I will reveal. Perspective is what drove you to make a short term move against T, certainly nothing wrong with that, mine was longer. This stock was one of many choices, in or out of my portfolio.
Take any 10 year period of time in the life of a stock. T started around $24.68, in Oct 2008. With Dividends reinvested, the stock averaged a 13% yearly gain, or a 132% over 10 years. I guess I won’t mention the market tumble today huh...full disclosure. But I’ve been through them many times, ‘91, ‘00-02, ‘07-09 and if there was ever a time I felt like jumping THAT was the one! Today is a market correction and it was due....nearly 2000 Dow points during October....no big deal.
When the ‘Great Recession’ came knocking, we lost a whole generation of investor afraid to invest their hard earned dollars over this past decade, and look what they missed.
I’m nearly out the door, the yearly Div’s will add up to nearly one third of my Social...call it my Annuity, but from my Perspective, playing ‘long ball’ paid off, I will leave the real gambling to others!
That’s the reasoning. And if the Warner deal takes off ignites T, I’m happy, and if they don’t....we’ll, let’s just say the Divs are still coming in!
Shorted the stock? Brilliant my friend. Congratulations!
I shorted the stock at the beginning of the year and did great.