Extra Network Capacity Should Pay Off

Article Excerpt

AT&T INC. $24 (New York symbol T; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 6 billion; Market cap: $144 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; WSSF Rating: Average) plans to upgrade its Internet capacity, which will let it store and distribute more content. AT&T hopes these enhancements will help it attract more business customers, whose online payroll and accounting services require reliable data connections and lots of bandwidth. Increasing revenue from businesses also cuts AT&T’s reliance on consumers, who tend to buy fewer phones and services during recessions. This project will cost AT&T $1 billion in 2009, which is equal to 6% of its 2008 earnings of $16.7 billion, or $2.81 a share. AT&T is a buy. buy…