Telecom stocks: 8 companies analyzed
The 8 telecommunications companies Fintols covers, such as Charter Communications, Comcast and AT&T: P/E, growth, margin and dividend with dated figures.
Telecom carriers sell connectivity: wireless plans, home broadband and fiber, pay TV and network services for businesses. Most revenue comes from monthly bills, which makes it fairly predictable, and some carriers also lease capacity to smaller operators. Other companies simply own towers or fiber routes and rent them out on long contracts. Running a network takes huge, never-ending investment in cell sites, cables and spectrum licenses, which governments usually auction off. Spectrum is scarce, so licenses are valuable.
Because the business is so capital-hungry, EBITDA minus capital expenditures paints a truer picture of cash generation than earnings alone. Debt to EBITDA is a key ratio: nearly every carrier borrows heavily, and leverage that keeps climbing can put the dividend at risk. Other useful numbers are average revenue per user, churn and market share in each country. If a company operates in emerging markets, currency swings can make results look better or worse than the underlying business.
The biggest risk is price competition, which turns the service into a near commodity and squeezes margins. Add regulation, expensive spectrum auctions and the weight of large debt loads when interest rates rise. For a newer investor, a high dividend yield is not enough on its own. Make sure free cash flow covers the payout comfortably, because a dividend funded with fresh borrowing rarely lasts. It also helps to compare leverage with rivals in the same country, since regulation and competition vary a lot from market to market.
With data as of November 4, 2026, of the 8 telecommunications companies Fintols covers, the largest by market value is Verizon ($191.4 billion) among those quoted in dollars and Deutsche Telekom (€128.0 billion) among those quoted in euros, the fastest-growing in its latest quarter is Cellnex (+15.5% in sales) and the highest dividend yield belongs to Verizon (6.26%). The typical company in the group trades on a P/E of 11.7x and keeps a net margin of 9.1% (medians). Figures come from Yahoo Finance, the same source the Fintols analysis uses; N/A means the figure is not available.
Telecom companies on Fintols
| Company | Market cap | P/E | Revenue growth | Net margin | Dividend yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verizon (VZ) | $191.4 billion | 11.8x | +1.5% | 11.8% | 6.26% |
| T-Mobile (TMUS) | $168.6 billion | 15.3x | +7.4% | 12.0% | 3.03% |
| AT&T (T) | $147.1 billion | 11.7x | +5.3% | 10.2% | 5.19% |
| Deutsche Telekom (DTE.DE) | €128.0 billion | 15.0x | +4.4% | 7.2% | 3.87% |
| Comcast (CMCSA) | $88.2 billion | 7.9x | -6.1% | 9.2% | 5.58% |
| Telefónica (TEF) | €19.4 billion | N/A | N/A | -9.1% | 4.50% |
| Cellnex (CLNX) | €17.6 billion | N/A | +15.5% | -8.2% | 2.89% |
| Charter Communications (CHTR) | $15.6 billion | 3.1x | -1.7% | 9.1% | 0.00% |
Telecom comparisons
- Cellnex vs Telefónica
- Charter Communications vs Telefónica
- Charter Communications vs Cellnex
- Charter Communications vs Deutsche Telekom
- Comcast vs AT&T
- Comcast vs T-Mobile
- Comcast vs Verizon
- AT&T vs T-Mobile
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