Dividend.com: AT&T Has Apple Juice

AT&T Phones in Some Profits

AT&T(T Quote) reported a revenue gain of 4.7% to $30.87 billion, a touch below what had been expected. Its earnings per share number of 76 cents matched the estimates on the Street.

Sales of Apple(AAPL Quote) iPhones (sold exclusively in the U.S. through AT&T) helped offset what has been an accelerated loss of AT&T's traditional local-calling business line customers. The company now has 72.9 million mobile customers, making it the No. 1 carrier in the U.S. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications(VZ Quote) and Vodafone(VOD Quote), is second with an estimated 69 million customers. What may be surprising to investors is that AT&T now has 14.7 million DSL broadband subscribers, making it the largest supplier of high-speed Internet service in the U.S.

For investors, we think AT&T offers good value at its current levels. The company has a 5.03% dividend yield, based on last night's closing price of $31.82. The good news from AT&T today was a bit of a relief after Vodafone's not-so-good news yesterday.

Pepsi Investors Get Pop on Earnings Report

PepsiCo(PEP Quote) came in with solid earnings today, as the company's revenue rose 14% to $10.95 billion. Wall Street analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.02 per share on revenue of $10.55 billion. Management credits strong international growth as well as a little help from the weak dollar.

Pepsi management believes it will continue to raise prices to offset what may amount to a 9% to 10% rise in commodity costs for the rest of 2008.

The highlight of this past quarter came from the company's PepsiCo International division, which includes snacks and beverages outside of North and Latin America. The unit delivered a revenue increase of 25%. The company did mention it is adding $1 billion to its share-repurchase program. We are hoping it will allocate some funds to a dividend increase as well.