: AT&T stock jumps after CFO says he ‘confident’ in FCF guidance, which bodes well for continued high dividend yield

Shares of AT&T Inc. T jumped 2.3% toward a two-month high in midday trading Thursday, after the telecommunications company’s Chief Financial Officer said he was “confident” in the previously provided full-year guidance for free cash flow of “better than $16 billion.” The current FactSet consensus for 2023 FCF is $17.23 billion. For the third-quarter, the company expects free cash flow in the range of $4.5 billion to $5.0 billion, which compares with the FactSet consensus of $4.95 billion. Companies use free cash flow to fund their dividend payments and share buybacks. In July, the company said on its post-Q2 earnings call, according to an AlphaSense transcript, that it had generated $15.2 billion of free cash flow over the past 12 months and paid out total dividends and other distributions of $9.3 billion. AT&T currently pays a dividend at an annual rate of $1.11 per share. Based on current stock prices, that implies a dividend yield of 7.42%, which makes it the fourth-highest yielding stock in the S&P 500 SPX, and compares with the S&P 500’s implied yield of 1.53%.

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