Income Insights

Income-seeking investors shouldn't hesitate to take profits on stocks that run-up beyond their fair value.

You’d be hard-pressed to beat AT&T for steady growth and reliable income--especially in a market where too many are blindly bobbing for Apples.

The massive loss T-Mobile USA (NSDQ: TMUS) reported this week hasn’t slowed the hyperactive tweeting of its CEO John Legere. Nor apparently has the news scared off his groupies on Wall Street, though that may have more to do with continuing takeover speculation.

No group of dividend-paying stocks has been more profitably shorted the past few years than high yield telecoms. Short sellers make their money when stock prices fall. And sector companies have not only cut dividends eight times since 2009, but we’ve seen a pair of bankruptcies as well.

We’ve yet to see third quarter results for most of the US communications industry. But it’s not too soon to ask what happened to the assertion the Big Two US Telecoms — AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) — would be skewered by rivals’ cut rate pricing and a cheaper iPhone.

Forget what you’ve read about iOS7, iPhone 5C, China sales and the rest of the various and sundry device hype. Put your money in AT&T (NYSE: T), not Apple (NSDQ: AAPL).