AT&T's (NYSE: T) stock lost over a quarter of its value last year. The tepid growth of its wireless segment couldn't offset its loss of pay TV subscribers and WarnerMedia's pandemic-related disruptions, and it continued to burn cash on its streaming services to challenge Netflix, Disney, and other platforms.
AT&T's debt levels remained high, and some investors questioned the sustainability of its dividend. T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) also surpassed AT&T as the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. after it merged with Sprint last April. All those headwinds were already keeping investors away from AT&T in 2020, and it didn't help that the market also favored higher-growth tech stocks that were better insulated from the pandemic.
However, that market sentiment has reversed over the past few months. Rising bond yields have sparked a rotation from growth to value stocks, and investors are pivoting from pandemic plays toward reopening ones. That shift brought some investors back to AT&T.
Source Fool.com