T in 60 seconds
- Ticker T on the NYSE. The simplification of AT&T into a pure-play comms business after the April 2022 WarnerMedia spin-off and the DirecTV sale to TPG.
- Two operating engines: Mobility (about 55% of group revenue, around 72 million postpaid phone subscribers) and the combined Business Wireline plus Consumer Wireline segments that house fibre broadband.
- Annual revenue near $122 billion. Net debt sits around $130 billion, the largest balance sheet in US telecom, and quarterly deleveraging progress is the line the buy-side reads first.
- Quarterly dividend is roughly 28 cents per share after the February 2022 cut that took the annualised payout from $2.08 to $1.11. Dividend coverage from free cash flow is now treated as the central credibility metric.
- At LHFX, T trades as a CFD with a 1:20 leverage cap, $3 per side commission, STP/ECN execution and raw spreads on MT5.
What AT&T actually does in 2026
Strip away the media-conglomerate era and what is left is a fairly simple business. AT&T runs the second-largest US wireless network by postpaid phone subscribers, and it is building one of the largest residential fibre footprints in the country. Everything else, the satellite TV stake, the Time Warner empire, the Latin American video assets, has been sold, spun, or wound down between 2021 and 2024.
The wireless half of the company sells phone plans, family plans, and connected-device plans to roughly 72 million postpaid phone customers, plus a smaller prepaid base under the Cricket brand. The handset side is mostly a pass-through: customers finance new iPhones and Galaxys over 36 months and AT&T sits between Apple, Samsung, and the consumer with a thin equipment margin. The recurring service revenue is where the operating profit comes from.
The wireline half is two distinct stories under one roof. The shrinking story is legacy copper voice and DSL, where the subscriber base falls every quarter as customers drop landlines and move off copper-based broadband. The growing story is fibre to the home: a multi-year build-out that has reached roughly 28 million addressable households (called fibre passings) and signed up about 9 million paying fibre subscribers.
Where the money actually comes from
Three revenue buckets matter when you read an AT&T quarter. Knowing which bucket is moving tells you which way the next earnings reaction is likely to go.
| Mobility service revenue | About 45% of group revenue | Recurring monthly fees from postpaid and prepaid wireless customers. The wholesale metric the market tracks here is ARPU, average revenue per user. A flat or rising ARPU print is read as pricing power; a falling ARPU print is read as competitive weakness against T-Mobile and Verizon. |
| Mobility equipment revenue | About 10% of group revenue | Handset financing and device sales. Margin here is low single digits and the quarterly print swings with iPhone launch cycles and trade-in promotion intensity. Analysts mostly back this line out to focus on service revenue. |
| Consumer Wireline (fibre and legacy) | About 12% of group revenue | Fibre subscribers grow at a high single to low double digit rate and the legacy copper base falls every quarter. The net of those two trends is now positive on revenue, and the gross margin profile is significantly better than the copper base it is replacing. |
| Business Wireline | Remaining group revenue | Enterprise connectivity, government contracts, fibre and Ethernet to mid-market business customers. This segment is in slow secular decline as enterprises move to SD-WAN and cloud-direct connectivity, but it still throws off meaningful cash. |
The simplification thesis is that, with the media assets gone, every dollar of operating cash flow can now be allocated to fibre capex, debt paydown, and the dividend, rather than financing studio content or satellite-TV losses.
What actually moves the T share price
Five things drive the quarterly reaction. None of them is the headline revenue number.
Postpaid phone net additions
The single most-watched wireless figure. Each quarter analysts compare T's postpaid phone net adds with the same figure from T-Mobile and Verizon. If T is winning share, the stock holds up even on weaker financial metrics. If T-Mobile is winning postpaid share for the third or fourth straight quarter, the relative narrative damages T regardless of the absolute net-add number.
Fibre passings and fibre net adds
How many new homes the fibre build has reached, and how many of those households have actually signed up. The market wants to see roughly 2 million new fibre passings per year and continued positive fibre subscriber net adds. A capex slowdown that throttles passings growth would change the multi-year revenue trajectory.
Free cash flow versus dividend coverage
Free cash flow divided by total dividend payout. Coverage above 1.5x gives management room to raise the dividend; coverage at or below 1.0x reopens the cut conversation. Memory of the 2022 cut is fresh enough that any weak coverage print is punished hard.
Net debt and the deleveraging glidepath
Net debt to adjusted EBITDA. Around $130 billion of net debt is the largest balance sheet line in US telecom and a credit-spread story as much as an equity story. Investment-grade rating actions from Moody's or S&P can move T by several percent in an afternoon.
5G and fibre capex cadence
C-Band 5G rollout and fibre build are the two big capex programmes. A guidance reduction in capex for the next year mechanically lifts free cash flow and helps coverage; a capex overrun does the opposite. Capex discipline is therefore tracked just as closely as EBITDA.
Earnings rhythm and what tends to happen
T reports four times a year, always before the US market open. Knowing the cadence lets you avoid getting blindsided by a print you forgot about.
| Q4 results (full year) | Late January |
| Q1 results | Late April |
| Q2 results | Late July |
| Q3 results | Late October |
How the print usually plays out
- Implied moves on earnings have run between 3% and 6% over the last two years, modest by US large-cap standards.
- Verizon usually reports a day or two before T and frames the postpaid phone net-add narrative. T-Mobile typically reports a few days after T. The order matters: the first peer print sets sector positioning and T often gaps into the open on Verizon's number rather than on its own results.
- The opening 15 minutes after the cash open carry the widest spreads of the day. If you intend to trade the earnings reaction, wait for the spread to normalise before placing orders.
- Ex-dividend dates fall in early January, early April, early July, and early October. Long CFD holders receive the dividend adjustment on those dates; short holders pay it.
When you can trade T at LHFX
T follows the US cash equity session. There is no pre-market or after-hours window on the CFD.
| US regular hours | 14:30 to 21:00 UTC | 09:30 to 16:00 New York | Full |
| US pre-market | Not available on CFD | Not available on CFD | Closed |
| US after-hours | Not available on CFD | Not available on CFD | Closed |
| US market holidays | Closed | Closed | Closed |
Liquidity is best between 14:30 and 16:00 UTC and again in the last 60 minutes of the cash session. The mid-day lull between 17:30 and 19:30 UTC tends to widen spreads on lower-volume tickers like T.
Trading T as a CFD versus owning the share
A CFD pays out on price movement. Buying the share on a US broker gives you legal ownership and voting rights. They are not interchangeable, and the decision depends on what you are trying to do.
| Aspect | T CFD at LHFX | Direct NYSE share |
|---|---|---|
| Legal ownership of the stock | No, you hold a contract referenced to the share price | Yes, registered with DTC via your broker |
| Voting at the annual meeting | No vote | Yes, one vote per share |
| Going short | Sell at the click of a button, no locate required | Requires a margin account and an available stock borrow |
| Leverage available | Up to 1:20 at LHFX | Typically 2:1 intraday and 1:1 overnight under Reg T |
| Dividend handling | Cash adjustment on the ex-date, debit on shorts | Cash dividend paid by AT&T into your brokerage account |
| Holding period cost | Daily swap on the leveraged notional | No financing charge unless you used margin |
| Settlement currency | USD | USD |
| Tax treatment | Depends on your tax residence, often treated as a derivative | Capital gains and dividend tax in your country of residence |
If you want a multi-decade hold to compound the dividend and the share count, buy the share at a cash-equity broker. If you want directional or short-term exposure, want to short the stock without arranging a borrow, or want to size with defined leverage, the CFD is the right instrument.
How to get exposure to T: three routes compared
There are three common ways a retail trader can take a view on AT&T. They look similar on a chart, but the cost structure and the holding profile are very different.
T CFD at LHFX / Direct NYSE share / US large-cap dividend ETF
| Exposure | 1:1 to AT&T share price | 1:1 to AT&T share price | Diluted exposure, T is one weight among many |
| Leverage available | Up to 1:20 | Up to 2:1 intraday under Reg T | Up to 2:1 intraday under Reg T |
| Short exposure | Sell at the click of a button | Margin account plus stock borrow required | Inverse ETF needed or short the ETF itself |
| Trading hours | US cash session only | US cash session, plus pre and post on some brokers | US cash session, plus pre and post on some brokers |
| Cost to enter and exit | $3 per side commission, raw spread | Often $0 commission, retail spread | Often $0 commission, retail spread |
| Holding cost | Daily swap on the leveraged notional | No financing charge if unleveraged | ETF expense ratio, typically 0.05 to 0.40% |
| Dividend treatment | Cash adjustment on ex-date | Cash dividend paid by company | Distribution paid by the ETF, usually monthly or quarterly |
| Best suited for | Directional and short-term trades, hedging, going short | Long-term holders compounding the dividend | Diversified exposure to dividend payers, not pure T view |
The CFD wins on flexibility, leverage choice, and short access. The direct share wins on long-term cost. The ETF wins on diversification but loses the pure-T thesis that probably brought you to this page.
Trading T at LHFX: contract spec and a worked example
T is offered as a CFD on the cash AT&T share price. Execution is STP/ECN on raw spreads via MT5 or the LHFX Trade web platform.
T
AT&T Inc. common stock, NYSE
MetaTrader 5 and LHFX Trade
STP/ECN, raw spreads
$3 per side per lot, so $6 round trip on 1.00 lot
1:20
14:30 to 21:00 UTC, Monday to Friday
$10
Adjustment on ex-date, credit to longs, debit to shorts
Daily swap on the notional position
Worked example: a $3,000 account, half a percent at risk
Assume T is trading at $24.50. You take a long view ahead of the next quarterly print and decide to risk $15 on the trade, which is half a percent of the $3,000 account. Your technical stop sits $0.30 below the entry. Position size is $15 divided by $0.30, which is 50 shares.
Fifty shares of T at $24.50 is $1,225 of notional. At the 1:20 cap, required margin is $61.25. Round-trip commission is $3.00 ($3 per side per standard lot on 0.50 lots), or 0.24% of notional. If the trade hits stop, you lose $15 on the share move plus the $3.00 commission, $18.00 in total. If the trade runs $0.90 in your favour (a roughly 3.7% move that is plausible into earnings), you book $45 of share profit less the $3.00 commission, $42.00 net.
Hold the position overnight and a daily swap is charged on the leveraged notional. The exact swap rate is published inside MT5 under symbol specifications. Hold across an ex-dividend date and your long position is credited an amount close to the quarterly 28 cents per share, in this case roughly $14 on 50 shares.
This is illustrative sizing. It uses different numbers from the example on the markets page deliberately, so you can see how the same framework scales to a different account.
Risks specific to trading T
Three risk lines deserve real attention before you click buy or sell on T. They are not generic equity risks; they are specific to this name.
Postpaid share loss to T-Mobile
T-Mobile has been the postpaid phone share winner for several years, helped by an earlier mid-band 5G coverage lead. If T's postpaid phone net adds turn negative for two consecutive quarters, the market re-rates the wireless segment lower and Mobility ARPU stops being able to grow. That single line item drives a meaningful share of consolidated EBITDA, so any sustained slip on net adds tends to be a multi-quarter overhang rather than a one-day reaction.
Balance sheet shock and dividend risk
With about $130 billion of net debt, T is a credit-spread story as much as an equity story. A free cash flow miss caused by higher fibre capex, an unexpected 5G spectrum auction obligation, or a wireless ARPU squeeze pushes deleveraging out by years and reopens the discussion of a second dividend cut. The 2022 cut, from $2.08 to $1.11 annualised, is recent enough that the market treats any soft coverage print as a real trigger rather than a hypothetical.
Regulatory and rate-environment exposure
Spectrum auctions, FCC net-neutrality posture, and US Treasury yields all matter. Higher US ten-year yields lift the cost of refinancing the debt stack and depress the value of T's dividend yield versus risk-free alternatives, both of which compress the multiple. None of this is in the company's control.
How to manage these risks
- Set a hard stop before entry. Do not move it after the trade is on.
- Size positions so an 8% earnings or downgrade gap is a survivable loss, not a portfolio event.
- Read the quarterly transcript for explicit free cash flow versus dividend coverage commentary.
- Watch Verizon's print one or two days ahead of T as a directional read on the wireless cycle.
- Track 10-year US Treasury yields. Sharp moves in yields drag dividend-yield stocks like T even when nothing about the company changed.