Buy AT&T, Verizon and EMC, Sell Riverbed

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - We're now in the third full week of earnings season where Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB), among others, are due to announce their numbers.

This week "value" continues to be the operative word for investors looking to buy and sell on either a surprise beat such as Yahoo! (YHOO) or ahead of disappointing results such as Chipotle (CMG).

In this article we are going to make a case for buying AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and EMC (EMC) while looking to unload Riverbed (RVBD) ahead of its report.

Buy AT&T and Verizon

If you want two of the safest stocks for the next 10 years you can't go wrong with buying telecom giants AT&T and Verizon. Not only are these two titans certain to be dominant well into the future, but both offer dividend yields that are among the best in the entire market while operating in sector that is poised for exponential growth.

So it is not by coincidence that I am recommending adding both names ahead of Apple's report. But that is not because they are mere iPhone distributors. In fact, they have proven to be much more valuable in their own right, particularly Verizon as it demonstrated in its most recent report.

The company reported a second-quarter profit of $4.29 billion, or 64 cents per share, an increase of 19% from the $3.6 billion that it reported in the same period of a year ago. Revenue grew almost 4% to $28.6 billion, meeting analysts' estimates. The company benefited immensely from rising cellular bills attributable to higher-than-usual data charges.

During the quarter, the company added 888,000 new customer contracts, exceeding the 724,000 that were projected. Even more noteworthy is how the company continues to get its customers to spend more money. Profit margins surged 49% as its average revenue per user (ARPU) grew almost 4% to $56.13, topping the $55.82 ARPU predicted by analysts.

However, after reporting the stock dropped as investors were disappointed by its landline business. Nonetheless, I expect to see a rebound this week after Apple's report and I would recommend accumulating shares at current levels.

This brings us back to AT&T, which will report on Tuesday before market opens. Analysts are expecting earnings per share of 63 cents on revenue of $31.75 billion. In its first quarter the company reported beating analysts' expectations by logging $31.8 billion in revenue and registering profits of $3.6 billion, an increase of 1.8% over the $3.4 billion it posted in the same period a year ago.

1 2 3 4 Next › Last »