AT&T Makes Leadership Changes, Appoints a New COO
On Tuesday, AT&T announced the appointment of John Stankey as its president and COO—a new position. AT&T stock rose 0.3% and closed at $35.38 on the day.
Sep. 4 2019, Updated 1:21 p.m. ET
On Tuesday, AT&T (T) announced major changes to its leadership team. The telecom giant announced the appointment of John Stankey as its new president and chief operating officer—a new position. Stankey will report to AT&T’s chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson.
According to a September 3 CNBC report, “Stankey will continue as CEO of WarnerMedia while taking on the newly created position, effective Oct. 1.” The report added, “Stankey will oversee executives at AT&T Communications and the company’s advertising and analytics division, Xandr, in addition to his team at WarnerMedia.”
In addition, Jeff McElfresh was appointed as CEO of AT&T Communications, effective October 1. McElfresh will replace John Donovan and will report to Stephenson. Donovan announced his surprise retirement last week.
Stephenson noted, “Now is the time to more tightly align our collection of world-class content, scaled consumer relationships, technical know-how and innovative advertising technology.”
AT&T’s price movement
AT&T stock rose 0.3% on September 3 and closed at $35.38. The stock’s five-day, one-month, and year-to-date price movements were 1.3%, 3.5%, and 24.0%, respectively. Despite the increase in AT&T’s stock price this year, the company is still trading at a discount of 10.9% to its three-year high of $43.03.
Notably, the stock is trading 0.3% lower than its 52-week high of $35.50. The company is trading 32.0% higher than its 52-week low of $26.80. AT&T stock has also risen 10.8% in the trailing 12 months.
Among its peers, Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) have risen 9.7% and 16.8%, respectively, in the trailing 12 months. On September 3, T-Mobile stock fell 1.2% and closed at $77.13, while Sprint stock fell 1.3% to $6.70.
AT&T’s market capitalization is $258.5 billion, while T-Mobile and Sprint have respective market caps of $65.9 billion and $27.4 billion.
Technical levels
Based on its closing price on September 3, AT&T stock was trading 1.7% above its 20-day moving average of $34.80, 4.0% above its 50-day moving average of $34.01, and 7.8% above its 100-day moving average of $32.81. AT&T’s 14-day RSI (relative strength index) score is 61, which shows that investors are neutral toward the stock.
In the September 3 trading session, AT&T stock closed near its upper Bollinger Band level of $35.67. This value shows that the stock is overbought, and investors could take the value as a “sell” signal.
The proposed merger deal between Sprint and T-Mobile is moving toward completion. Check out T-Mobile Asks Court to Clear the Sprint Merger to learn more about the merger deal.
