T - Dividend Aristocrats & Credit Ratings
When AT&T (T) had its earnings release and investor update in late April, the first phrase on the investor presentation was "de-lever through strong free cash flow, non-core asset sales". The telecom, media, and technology giant posted an impressive $5.9B of free cash flow on the quarter, and is trying to challengingly thread the needle of delivering on its prioritized promise to de-lever from recent acquisitions and continue to deliver increasing dividends to shareholders.
In my monthly article detailing the performance of the Dividend Aristocrats, AT&T sticks out as an outlier with