Stock price when the opinion was issued
One of the largest telecommunication companies in Germany. Has a significant stake in T-Mobile in the US. The German telecom market has consolidated, and there are only about 4 big players. Still in earlier stages of LCE adoption, meaning that smart phones haven’t fully penetrated the market. They’ll get the benefit of increased smart phone penetration, bundling, and at some point look to monetize their T-Mobile position, which would unlock a lot of shareholder value. Also, has a 4%-5% stable dividend yield.
Buy Verizon? At this point in the cycle, interests rates are getting quite low, generally getting a telco is an interesting idea and been recommending this for clients. Recently got out of Verizon and substituted into AT&T. Nothing wrong with Verizon, 5G, fiber-to-the-home, etc. everything is going to work, just thinks there is a better yield opportunity with AT&T. Also owns Deutsche Telekom to play the T-Mobile Sprint merger.
This is in a similar place to Orange, China Mobile and other large and successful telecom companies. They are a dividend play, not a growth play. Dividend plays are less attractive in a rising interest environment. This is a rational competitor and investors are not likely to lose money in it.