T - AT&T touts new 'safe' dividend; HBO/Discovery headed toward single-app future

AT&T (T -0.2%) is pitching its stock as appealing to investors after it separates from the media space, suggesting it will be an attractively priced company paying dividends and targeting earnings growth. Speaking to a Deutsche Bank conference, Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches addressed the rampant questions emerging ever since AT&T signaled last spring that a media exit would mean a dividend nearly halved. The dividend is "not only safe," Desroches says, but a new size ($1.11 annually vs. the previous $2.08) also gives it financial flexibility: "We feel really good about where we are." (See AT&T's Dividend Scorecard here.) Meanwhile, he went back over the logic that led AT&T to pursue a spin-off in the blockbuster Warner Bros. Discovery deal vs. a split-off: heavy discounting that would be required to move such an unprecedented volume of shares in a split-off. Discovery has about 700 million shares outstanding, and 1.7

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AT&T touts new 'safe' dividend; HBO/Discovery headed toward single-app future