Smart Dividend Portfolio Edition: Signal Strength
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Dear Investor,
Welcome to this edition of TipRanks’ Smart Dividend Portfolio & Newsletter.
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Market-Moving News: Feb 09, 2026
Despite a rollercoaster week for tech stocks and crypto, U.S. stocks ended the week on a high note as investors weighed earnings results and fresh moves in AI spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 1.68% to $50,115.67, the S&P 500 (SPX) rose 1.42% to $6,932.30, and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) rose 1.68% to $25,075.77. At the same time, the 10-year Treasury yield eased to about 4.21%, while oil (CM:CL) closed at $63.54 a barrel and gold (CM:XAUUSD) dipped to $4,968.85.
The biggest market story of the week came from Amazon (AMZN), which posted a fourth-quarter earnings miss even as revenue came in ahead of estimates. Shares fell sharply after the report, as the company also guided that 2026 capital spending could reach about $200 billion, driven by AWS AI growth. However, that same spending plan lifted many AI-linked stocks, since investors viewed it as a strong signal of long-term demand. As a result, Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) , Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Broadcom (AVGO) all moved higher as the AI trade returned.
At the same time, crypto markets stayed in focus after Bitcoin (BTC-USD) slid below $70,000 and hit a 15 month low. The token is now down about 44% from its October peak, and the sharp swings also pulled crypto-tied stocks lower at points during the week. Still, some rebound followed, which helped drive large moves in names like Strategy (MSTR).
Turning to company news, Stellantis N.V. (STLA) sank after announcing a €22 billion charge tied to its pullback in electric vehicle plans. The company said the cost reflected “overestimating the pace of the energy transition,” and it also noted it would not pay an annual dividend in 2026.
Elsewhere, Anthropic gained attention after launching Claude Opus 4.6, which includes a 1-million-token context window and new office tools for coding and work use. This came as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticized Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad push, calling the message “dishonest,” reflecting the simmering AI rivalry.
In health care, Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY) rose after the FDA issued a warning on “illegal copycat drugs,” which helped support leading weight loss names.
In airlines, several stocks climbed as oil prices fell and U.S.-Iran talks raised hopes for calm. Alaska Air Group (ALK), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and United Airlines (UAL) were among the movers.
Finally, banks stayed constructive on gold, as UBS Group (UBS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) reiterated bullish views even after sharp swings in metals.
Looking ahead, markets will remain focused on how AI spending plans shape earnings outlooks, while investors also watch Bitcoin’s next move after another volatile stretch. In addition, policy headlines, commodity shifts, and February earnings season will likely keep risk appetite uneven in the days ahead.
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This Week’s Quality Dividend Stock Idea
American Tower Corp. (AMT) is a U.S.-based real estate investment trust specializing in the ownership, operation, and development of wireless and broadcast communications infrastructure. It operates a global portfolio of communications sites, including towers, rooftops, and small cells, supporting mobile network operators, broadcasters, and data providers. American Tower’s assets enable the deployment of 5G, mobile broadband, and next-generation wireless services across developed and emerging markets. Focused on long-term leasing and infrastructure expansion, the company benefits from rising data usage and the continued growth of global connectivity.
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Signal Empire
American Tower Corp. traces its origins to 1995, when it was formed as a subsidiary of American Radio Systems to own and operate wireless communications towers. The company went public in 1998, providing capital to pursue an acquisition-driven strategy at a time when U.S. wireless carriers were beginning to divest tower assets to reduce capital intensity. American Tower quickly recognized that separating infrastructure ownership from network operations could create a scalable business built on long-term, recurring lease revenue.
During the early 2000s, American Tower acquired large portfolios of towers from major carriers, establishing itself as one of the leading independent tower owners in the United States. A pivotal transaction came in 2015, when the company purchased approximately 11,000 U.S. towers from Verizon, reinforcing its domestic leadership and providing a foundation for future 4G and 5G deployments. The company’s multi-tenant colocation model, which involves leasing space on a single tower to multiple carriers, became a core earnings driver, as each additional tenant generated high-margin incremental revenue.
With its U.S. platform firmly established, American Tower expanded aggressively into international markets, targeting countries with rising mobile data consumption and favorable long-term demographics. A major step in this strategy occurred in 2021, when the company acquired Telxius Towers from Telefónica. The deal added approximately 31,000 sites across Europe, including Spain and Germany, and across Latin America, including Brazil and Peru, significantly enlarging American Tower’s global footprint and strengthening its presence in developed and high-growth markets.
That same year, American Tower broadened its digital infrastructure capabilities through the acquisition of CoreSite Realty, bringing in 32 U.S. data centers into its portfolio. The transaction extended American Tower’s reach into edge computing and interconnection, creating synergies with its tower business and positioning the company to benefit from data-intensive 5G applications.
As its asset base expanded, American Tower also became more selective about geographic exposure. In 2024, the company sold its India operations, approximately 76,000 sites, to a Brookfield-led consortium for about $2.2 billion, materially reducing emerging-market exposure and providing proceeds for deleveraging.
Collectively, these strategic moves helped grow American Tower’s portfolio to roughly 225,000 communications sites by 2024, while diversifying revenue streams further. The combination of scale, disciplined capital recycling, and focus on stable, high-demand markets has supported steady growth in cash flow and earnings, reinforcing American Tower’s position as a leading global REIT in wireless and digital infrastructure.
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Tower Economics
American Tower operates a global communications real estate platform centered on owning, operating, and leasing infrastructure that enables wireless and data connectivity. The company controls more than 220,000 communications sites across the United States and international markets and has expanded into carrier-neutral data centers through its CoreSite subsidiary. Together, these assets support a highly recurring, contract-based business model built on long-term visibility, operating leverage, and durable cash generation.
The foundation of the model is the leasing of vertical space on multi-tenant communications towers. Wireless carriers and other network operators install antennas and related equipment on American Tower’s structures and pay monthly rent under non-cancelable contracts that typically run five to ten years, with multiple renewal options. Most leases include fixed annual escalators, and many international contracts incorporate inflation-linked adjustments, providing built-in organic growth. Because a single tower can host multiple tenants, incremental leasing carries very high margins once a site is constructed. As a result, additional revenue flows through efficiently to earnings and free cash flow.
A key driver of this high-margin growth is colocation. As carriers expand network capacity, deploy new spectrum, and upgrade technology, they usually add equipment to existing towers rather than build entirely new sites. These amendments and new colocations increase rent with minimal incremental operating expense. This dynamic has repeated across multiple technology cycles and continues today as networks evolve toward higher-capacity architectures.
American Tower has broadened its earnings base with the addition of CoreSite, which operates interconnection-rich data centers in major U.S. metropolitan areas. CoreSite serves cloud providers, enterprises, and network operators that require secure colocation space and dense interconnection with networks and cloud platforms. These facilities generate recurring revenue and benefit from secular growth in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and hybrid IT architecture. Importantly, CoreSite also extends American Tower’s participation in the data value chain, complementing its wireless infrastructure footprint.
Geographic diversification further strengthens the business. American Tower operates in more than 20 countries, providing exposure to markets at different stages of wireless adoption and reducing reliance on any single region. In many international markets, smartphone penetration and mobile data usage are still rising rapidly, supporting long-term infrastructure investment.
The company’s capital profile underpins consistent earnings and free cash flow growth. Maintenance capital requirements are modest relative to revenue, while growth capital is increasingly directed toward high-return build-to-suit projects, selective new builds, and data center expansion. Combined with long-term contracts, escalators, and high incremental margins, this structure supports the company’s ability to compound cash flows over time.
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Rising Bars
Several powerful technology and usage trends continue to reinforce demand for American Tower’s infrastructure and support a long runway for organic growth. In the U.S., mobile data traffic is rising at roughly 35% year over year, fueled by video streaming, cloud-based applications, gaming, and increasingly data-intensive mobile services. At this pace, total traffic is expected to double every two to three years, implying that overall network capacity must approximately double over a five-year period.
For wireless carriers, the most economical way to meet this demand isn’t via wholesale network replacement, but rather through incremental upgrades – adding spectrum, radios, and antennas on existing sites, along with selective densification in high-traffic areas. Each of these actions typically results in lease amendments, additional monthly rent, or new colocations for tower owners, directly supporting the company’s organic revenue growth.
The 5G cycle remains a multi-year structural growth engine. In the U.S., about 75% of towers have already been upgraded with some form of 5G equipment, reflecting several years of investment. However, 5G is not a one-time upgrade. Carriers continue to deploy additional mid-band spectrum, optimize performance, and improve network quality, all of which require multiple layers of equipment on existing sites. Early-stage densification is also underway in congested locations, consistent with prior capacity expansion cycles.
Internationally, the runway is even longer. Mid-band 5G coverage is estimated at roughly 50% in Europe, about 20% in Latin America, and close to 10% in Africa, indicating many years of potential network upgrades as carriers expand both coverage and capacity.
Spectrum availability further reinforces these trends. When carriers acquire additional spectrum, they must deploy it across their networks, driving incremental site activity. Looking ahead, future technologies such as 6G are expected to rely more heavily on higher-frequency bands that travel shorter distances and penetrate buildings less effectively, necessitating denser networks with more sites. Management does not view additional spectrum as a substitute for towers; rather, carriers need a combination of spectrum, more locations, and improved spectral efficiency to keep pace with traffic growth.
Artificial intelligence adds another layer of demand. On the wireless side, AI-enabled applications such as video editing, real-time translation, and augmented reality increase data usage and network load. Within CoreSite, American Tower’s data center platform, early-stage AI workloads, including running AI models in real time, training algorithms on large datasets, and renting specialized AI computing infrastructure, are driving demand for power-dense capacity and fast, low-latency interconnection.
While AI is tightening supply-demand conditions and supporting pricing, management emphasizes that CoreSite’s opportunity is fundamentally anchored in the long-term shift toward hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, with AI serving as an incremental accelerator.
The United States remains the cornerstone of American Tower’s earnings and cash generation. Carrier activity is evolving from broad 5G coverage toward a longer phase centered on improving network quality, adding capacity, and selectively densifying. Management views mobile data trends as a better indicator of tower demand than headline carrier capital expenditure figures, which often include spending unrelated to towers.
The company’s multiyear expectation for mid-single-digit organic growth in developed markets remains intact, despite short-term headwinds from a contractual dispute with DISH1 following EchoStar’s spectrum sale to AT&T and potential incremental churn associated with T-Mobile’s acquisition of UScellular.2 Management expects both issues to be manageable and not to alter the company’s long-term growth profile.
Internationally, the company is increasingly prioritizing developed markets to improve earnings visibility and reduce volatility, with Europe expected to deliver mid-single-digit organic growth supported by stable carriers, strong scale in markets such as Spain and Germany, and well-underwritten build-to-suit projects, while France remains a more selective, return-driven market.
In contrast, Latin America is undergoing a near-term reset due to carrier churn and restructurings, particularly in Brazil, with a return to accretive growth expected around 2028 as conditions stabilize, while Mexico faces delays from spectrum policy and slower 5G deployment, and Africa continues to post strong double-digit new business and amendment activity despite ongoing foreign-exchange risk.
CoreSite has emerged as a key growth platform, with record retail leasing, strong pricing, and stabilized development yields in the mid-teens or higher, achieved faster than in prior cycles due to pre-leasing and a deep customer pipeline. Its advanced power, liquid cooling, and dense interconnection capabilities support high-density and AI workloads, while nearly 300 megawatts of future capacity and 42 megawatts under construction underpin expectations for sustained upper single- to double-digit growth.
Operational execution continues to strengthen, with adjusted EBITDA margins expanding by about 300 basis points since 2020 due to scale and cost discipline, and further upside from supply-chain optimization, automation, and operational streamlining. Services revenue remains near record levels, signaling robust carrier activity and future leasing and amendment growth.
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1- The DISH issue stems from a contractual dispute after EchoStar’s spectrum sale to AT&T, with DISH claiming certain tower lease payments can be excused, a view American Tower disputes and is pursuing legally, though DISH represents only about 2% of property revenue.
2- T-Mobile’s acquisition of UScellular could cause temporary lease churn from site overlap, but management expects any impact to stay within normal historical ranges. Exposure to UScellular represents less than 1% of U.S. revenue, with churn expected to remain within the historical 1%–2% range.
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Connected Growth
Over the past five years, American Tower has delivered steady growth, with revenue and EPS compounding at 5.9% and 8.2%, respectively. This performance has been supported by consistent organic tenant billings driven by 5G-related amendments and network densification, accelerating growth at CoreSite fueled by AI and hybrid-cloud demand, and continued expansion across international markets despite foreign-exchange headwinds. Earnings growth has been amplified by structurally high gross margins, rising net margins, ongoing SG&A discipline, portfolio optimization, and consistent expansion in adjusted EBITDA.
The most recent third quarter reflected these longer-term trends. Total revenue increased by 7.7% year over year to approximately $2.7 billion, exceeding consensus expectations, with contributions from both property leasing and services. Property revenue rose 5.9% to $2.6 billion, while consolidated organic tenant billings growth reached 5%, highlighting solid underlying momentum before the effects of acquisitions and foreign exchange.
In the U.S. and Canada, reported property revenue was essentially flat year over year, but organic growth was approximately 4%, improving to about 5% when excluding the final quarter of Sprint-related churn following the T-Mobile–Sprint merger. With merger-related headwinds now largely behind the company, domestic growth is increasingly driven by new leasing, amendments, and elevated application activity.
International operations continued to serve as a key growth engine. Property revenue outside the U.S. and Canada increased 12% year over year, or approximately 8% on a constant-currency and cash basis after adjusting for foreign exchange and straight-line accounting, which reflect GAAP accounting that spreads contractual rent increases evenly over the life of a lease rather than recognizing only cash step-ups. Growth was supported by contractual escalators, ongoing network expansion in emerging markets, and rising data consumption that drove additional tenant deployments.
The Data Centers segment, anchored by CoreSite, delivered another strong quarter, with revenue rising 14% year over year to $266.6 million. Record levels of retail leasing and favorable pricing reflected sustained enterprise and cloud demand for interconnection-rich facilities, reinforcing CoreSite’s role as a meaningful contributor to overall growth.
Profitability continued to improve alongside revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased approximately 8% year over year to $1.82 billion, supported by operating leverage from higher tenancy and disciplined cost management, while cash margins expanded by about 20 basis points. Attributable AFFO3 per share, as adjusted, rose 10% year over year to $2.78, outpacing Street expectations and demonstrating the company’s ability to convert topline growth into expanding cash generation.
Leading indicators pointed to a strengthening demand environment. Services revenue, generated from tower-related activities such as site applications, permitting, and construction management that support U.S. leasing, reached near-record levels, supported by a robust pipeline and higher construction management activity. Application volumes rose roughly 20% year over year, and collocation applications increased about 40%, signaling continued network densification and a favorable setup for future leasing activity.
American Tower ended the period with net leverage of approximately 4.9x, the lowest among large public tower peers, supported by about $10.7 billion of liquidity. The company maintains investment-grade credit ratings of “BBB+” from S&P and Fitch and “Baa3” from Moody’s, with roughly 94% of debt fixed-rate and a weighted-average remaining maturity of about 5.5 years, providing balance sheet flexibility to support continued growth.
Reflecting stronger performance, management expects a robust FY25 performance, driven by FX tailwinds, stronger-than-expected U.S. services activity, and incremental net interest benefits, while leaving organic growth assumptions unchanged. The midpoint of property revenue guidance was increased by $40 million, implying about 3% reported growth, or roughly 5% on a cash, FX-neutral basis, with the outlook still assuming around 5% organic tenant billings growth and approximately 13% growth in U.S. data center revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA guidance was raised by $45 million at the midpoint, implying roughly 4% reported growth, while attributable AFFO guidance was lifted by $50 million, translating to approximately 7% reported growth, or about 9% excluding FX and financing effects. Management estimates 2025 as a year of roughly 5% cash, FX-neutral property revenue growth, 7% cash, FX-neutral adjusted EBITDA growth, and 9% growth in attributable AFFO per share, as adjusted.
The company’s capital plan remains focused on disciplined, high-return investment. Total cash outlays include about $1.7 billion of capital expenditures, of which roughly $1.5 billion is discretionary. Discretionary spending supports the construction of approximately 2,150 new towers at the midpoint and around $600 million of data center investment, with about 80% of discretionary capital directed toward developed markets. Allocation is weighted toward U.S. data centers, followed by U.S. and Canada towers, Europe, and emerging markets, reflecting a deliberate shift toward areas with higher visibility and more predictable returns.
The company is expected to announce its Q4 and FY25 results on February 24, and analysts expect AMT to report EPS of $1.48 on revenues of $2.69 billion.
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3- Adjusted Funds from Operations (AFFO) per refines FFO to measure sustainable recurring cash flow and, for American Tower, approximates the cash available for dividends, debt reduction, and reinvestment after maintaining its tower and data center assets.
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Signal Dividends
American Tower has maintained a consistent shareholder return program for more than a decade, anchored by a steadily growing dividend and supplemented by periodic share repurchases. The company initiated its dividend in 2011 and has a 13-year record of annual dividend growth. Over the past decade, dividends have compounded at an average annual rate of approximately 13.5%, reflecting sustained growth in earnings and cash flow. On an adjusted earnings basis, American Tower currently distributes about 65% of its earnings to shareholders, a level that balances income generation with reinvestment in the business. The stock offers a dividend yield of 3.76%, modestly above the real estate sector average of about 3.3%. For the most recent third quarter, the company declared and paid a dividend of $1.70 per share, representing 4.9% year-over-year growth. Total dividends paid during the quarter amounted to approximately $796 million, underscoring the scale of capital returned to shareholders.
Management is estimated to have paid common stock dividends worth around $3.2 billion in FY25, implying mid-single-digit dividend growth that is consistent with the company’s historical pattern of steady increases.
In addition to dividends, the company has long maintained the authorization to repurchase shares. The Board first approved a $1.5 billion stock repurchase program in March 2011, and expanded this capacity in December 2017 with an additional $2 billion authorization. Following the most recent quarter, the company repurchased $28 million of its common stock, with approximately $2 billion still available, providing flexibility to return incremental capital to shareholders.
AMT shares have fallen by about 10% over the past year, reflecting a combination of higher interest rates, REIT sector weakness, and company-specific concerns around leverage and near-term earnings visibility. Additional pressure followed currency-related noise, billing delays, and uncertainty tied to DISH/EchoStar, even as operating fundamentals such as AFFO and long-term growth drivers remain intact.
The company’s valuation reflects a balance between near-term caution and long-term confidence in its growth and cash-generation profile. On a trailing non-GAAP P/E basis, the stock trades at a discount to the sector, suggesting investors remain mindful of recent headwinds such as carrier consolidation and isolated tenant issues. However, AMT trades at a premium on forward-looking measures, including non-GAAP P/E, price-to-AFFO, and price-to-funds from operations (FFO), indicating that the market places a higher value on its expected future earnings and cash flows than on those of the average peer.
Relative to companies such as Crown Castle, SBA Communications, Equinix, and Digital Realty Trust, AMT generally sits in the low-to-moderate valuation range across key metrics like non-GAAP trailing and forward P/E, forward PEG, and EV/EBITDA. This positioning implies that returns are more likely to be driven by steady execution and underlying earnings growth rather than multiple expansion.
Analysts remain optimistic on American Tower’s outlook, pointing to steady revenue growth as evidence of healthy underlying demand for its communications infrastructure and effective execution of its long-term strategy. This consistency supports durable cash generation and reinforces confidence in the company’s ability to compound earnings over time. In parallel, disciplined debt management has strengthened balance sheet flexibility, allowing American Tower to continue investing through economic cycles while maintaining an investment-grade profile.
The company’s data center platform is also emerging as an important growth contributor. Rising adoption of hybrid cloud architectures and the early impact of AI-related workloads are driving strong leasing activity, improving visibility into future revenue, and enhancing the company’s strategic positioning beyond towers alone.
Reflecting these fundamentals, Street consensus estimates imply roughly 24% upside from current share levels, while more optimistic targets suggest potential gains of up to 48%. In addition, discounted cash flow analyses indicate that the shares may be trading at an estimated 34% discount to intrinsic value, pointing to meaningful valuation support for long-term investors.
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Investing Takeaway
For income-oriented investors, American Tower stands out as a durable dividend compounder rather than a high-yield trade. Its business is built on long-term, non-cancelable leases with built-in escalators, high incremental margins from colocations, and modest maintenance capital needs, all of which support predictable and growing cash flow. This cash flow underpins a steadily rising dividend that has been consistently supported by adjusted funds from operations rather than financial engineering. Importantly, management balances shareholder payouts with disciplined reinvestment in towers and data centers, helping preserve long-term dividend sustainability. While near-term noise from interest rates, currency movements, or isolated tenant issues can pressure the share price, the underlying income profile remains anchored in essential digital infrastructure with recurring demand. For investors seeking a blend of income stability and long-term dividend growth, American Tower offers a resilient and well-supported payout profile.
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Dividend Investor Portfolio
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Portfolio News
▣ Amgen (AMGN) reported fourth-quarter 2025 results on February 3, beating expectations on both top and bottom lines. Revenue came in at about $9.9 billion, above Street forecasts and up 8.8% year over year, while adjusted EPS of $5.29 also topped consensus, reflecting broad product performance and volume growth despite net price pressures. The company generated roughly $1 billion in free cash flow for the quarter and continued disciplined capital allocation, with no share repurchases during the period. Amgen’s board declared a quarterly dividend of $2.38 per share, reflecting continued commitment to returning cash to shareholders. The company’s ex-dividend date is on February 13, with the dividend expected to be paid on March 6. Management reiterated its confidence in the pipeline and provided 2026 guidance with adjusted EPS of $22.3 on revenues of $37.7 billion, both at midpoint, that exceeded analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings, underpinned by strong product demand and strategic investments.
▣ Cisco Systems (CSCO) is set to report its second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on February 11, with analysts watching closely for topline and EPS results relative to guidance. In the latest quarter, Cisco delivered about $14.9 billion in revenue, up around 8% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $1.00, both above expectations, driven by strong demand in networking and AI infrastructure. Management has already guided fiscal Q2 revenue to $15.1 billion and adjusted EPS of $1.02 at midpoint, signaling expectations for continued growth in core segments. The company’s robust order trends, particularly in campus networking and AI-related products, have underpinned optimism heading into the print.
▣ ExxonMobil’s (XOM) ex-dividend date is February 12, with the dividend expected to be paid on March 10.
▣ IBM’s (IBM) ex-dividend date is February 10, with the dividend expected to be paid on March 10, 2026.
▣ Kroger’s (KR) ex-dividend date is February 13, with the dividend expected to be paid on March 1, 2026.
▣ PepsiCo (PEP) reported fourth-quarter FY25 results on February 3, delivering a solid earnings beat that boosted shares. Net revenue increased about 5.6% year over year to roughly $29.3 billion, topping expectations, while adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.26, slightly above consensus forecasts. Organic demand held up despite pressure on North American volumes, prompting management to take strategic actions, including planned price adjustments on select snack products.
PepsiCo also raised its annualized dividend by about 4% to $5.92 per share and announced an expanded share repurchase program of up to $10 billion, signaling strong shareholder returns alongside cash generation. For fiscal 2026, the company reaffirmed its outlook for modest organic revenue growth in the range of 2%-4% and EPS expansion between 4% and 6%, underpinned by brand resilience and targeted cost and pricing initiatives.
▣ Philip Morris International (PM) reported its fourth-quarter 2025 results on February 6, delivering solid top- and bottom-line growth amid continued smoke-free momentum. Net revenue increased about 6.8% year over year to roughly $10.4 billion, reflecting strong demand for higher-margin smoke-free products that helped offset softness in traditional combustibles. Adjusted diluted EPS of $1.70 came in-line with estimates, driven by disciplined cost management and margin expansion in key segments. Smoke-free offerings continued to gain share globally, contributing a growing portion of sales and profit and underpinning the company’s strategic transformation.
Management highlighted sustained growth in markets where smoke-free products now exceed half of net revenues. For FY26, Philip Morris also reiterated its focus on smoke-free adoption and profitability, positioning the business for continued structural growth despite near-term headwinds in specific regions. The company expects adjusted EPS for the year to range from $8.38 to $8.53, representing growth of 11.1% to 13.1% year over year.
▣ Qualcomm (QCOM) reported record first-quarter fiscal 2026 results, with $12.3 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $3.50, both at the high end of guidance and above expectations. The company returned $3.6 billion to shareholders, including $2.6 billion in stock repurchases and $949 million in dividends, reflecting a balanced capital return strategy. Qualcomm recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.89 per share, translating to an annualized payout of around $3.56 per share. Looking ahead, management issued guidance for the next quarter of $10.6 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $2.55, both at midpoint, acknowledging near-term headwinds from industry-wide memory supply constraints even as premium handset and diversification segments show resilience.
▣ Verizon (VZ) drew investor attention during the week with developments that highlighted both competitive and organizational pressures. The company filed a federal lawsuit against T-Mobile, alleging that its rival misled consumers through advertising claims about wireless plan savings. Verizon argues that the marketing overstated customer benefits, and the legal action underscores intensifying competition as carriers battle for subscriber growth in a mature U.S. wireless market.
At the same time, Verizon announced a notable leadership change. Sowmyanarayan Sampath, the head of its consumer division, said he would step down, marking another move in the company’s ongoing turnaround efforts under CEO Dan Schulman. The consumer unit, which accounts for a significant share of Verizon’s revenue, has been a focal point of operational and strategic change.
Recent Trades
None at the moment, although we are considering adding a stock to our portfolio when the market conditions allow for an attractive entry point. Stay tuned.
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Portfolio Attributes
| Dividend Portfolio Yield |
Expected Dividend Growth | Expected Annual Income |
| 3.95% | +5.47% | $6,128.07 |
| Yield-on-Cost Adjusted, Weighted |
Average Analyst 12-Month Growth Outlook | 10K Per Stock at the Time of Purchase |
Current Portfolio
| Name | EX-Dividend Date | Payment Date | Yield on Cost | Annual DPS |
| Automatic Data Processing (ADP) | Mar 13, 2026 | Apr 01, 2026 | 2.46% | $6.80 |
| Amgen (AMGN) | May 19, 2026 | Jun 09, 2026 | 3.27% | $9.52 |
| BlackRock (BLK) | Mar 09, 2026 | Mar 24, 2026 | 2.61% | $22.92 |
| Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) | Apr 01, 2026 | Apr 28, 2026 | 5.98% | $3.21 |
| EOG Resources (EOG) | Apr 16, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | 3.06% | $4.08 |
| ExxonMobil (XOM) | May 15, 2026 | Jun 10, 2026 | 3.64% | $4.12 |
| Honeywell International (HON) | Mar 03, 2026 | Mar 17, 2026 | 2.39% | $4.76 |
| IBM (IBM) | May 12, 2026 | Jun 10, 2026 | 3.14% | $6.72 |
| JPMorgan Chase (JPM) | Apr 07, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | 3.43% | $6.00 |
| Kroger (KR) | May 15, 2026 | Jun 01, 2026 | 3.08% | $1.40 |
| Cisco Systems (CSCO) | Apr 07, 2026 | Apr 28, 2026 | 2.22% | $1.64 |
| PepsiCo (PEP) | Mar 10, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | 3.8% | $5.92 |
| Philip Morris (PM) | Mar 24, 2026 | Apr 14, 2026 | 6.06% | $5.88 |
| Qualcomm (QCOM) | Mar 05, 2026 | Mar 26, 2026 | 2.36% | $3.56 |
| VICI Properties (VICI) | Mar 27, 2026 | Apr 07, 2026 | 5.22% | $1.8 |
| Verizon (VZ) | Apr 13, 2026 | May 05, 2026 | 6.09% | $2.76 |
NameEX-Dividend DatePayment DateYield on Cost Annual DPS
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Click here for more stock market analysis from TipRanks Macro & Markets research analyst Yulia Vaiman
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Disclaimer
The information contained in this article represents the views and opinions of the writer only, and not the views or opinions of TipRanks or its affiliates and should be considered for informational purposes only. TipRanks makes no warranties about the completeness, accuracy, or reliability of such information. Nothing in this article should be taken as a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or sell securities. Nothing in the article constitutes legal, professional, investment, and/or financial advice and/or takes into account the specific needs and/or requirements of an individual, nor does any information in the article constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters or subject discussed therein. TipRanks and its affiliates disclaim all liability or responsibility with respect to the content of the article, and any action taken upon the information in the article is at your own and sole risk. The link to this article does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by TipRanks or its affiliates. Past performance is not indicative of future results, prices, or performance.
