A portfolio of stocks I've been building since September 3 is named Volio Folio. It will eventually hold 52 dividend dogs. Volio is the fifth portfolio I've built (at a one dividend dog per-week pace) since 2014. Five portfolios = V for Volio!

Today I'm reviewing the first of five communication services sector stocks striving to be picked to join my Volio folio. This could be the fourteenth pick for Volio!

Now the communications services sector includes seven industries all related to delivering messages to and from us. Communication services industries are: advertising agencies; broadcasting; electronic gaming and multimedia; entertainment; internet content and information; publishing; telecom services.

My subject today is a large-cap telecom services company named, AT&T Inc. Their trading ticker symbol is T.

I last reported on AT&T Inc on September 4th, 2018 and chose it that week as the first pick for my Ivy Portfolio.

Wireless communication remains AT&T's largest business, contributing nearly 40% of revenue. As the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, AT&T connects more than 100 million devices, including 63 million postpaid and 16 million prepaid phone customers.

The consumer and entertainment segment (about 25% of revenue) includes the consumer fixed-line and DirecTV satellite television businesses, serving 24 million television and 14 million Internet access customers. WarnerMedia now contributes a bit less than 20% of revenue with media assets that include HBO, the Turner cable networks, and the Warner Brothers studios. Fixed-line business communications (14%), Latin American satellite television (2%), and Mexican wireless services (1%) constitute the remainder of the firm.

It has a strategic alliance with Microsoft Corp. to deliver customer offerings, and Amdocs Limited.

The company was formerly known as SBC Communications Inc. and changed its name to AT&T Inc. in November 2005. AT&T Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend-paying equities or funds like AT&T Inc:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest, or not.

Those three basic keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

T Price

AT&T's price per share closed at $37.38 on Friday. A year ago its price was $31.71. So, in the past year, its price rose  $5.67, or 17.9%.

Assuming AT&T's stock trades in a range of $30 to $45 this next year, it's recent $37.38 price could rise by $4.62  to reach $42.00 by early-December, 2020, assuming upward price momentum continues.

T Dividends

AT&T's latest declared quarterly dividend was $0.51, paid November 1st.

That $0.51 Q dividend equates to $1.04 annually and yields 5.46% based on yesterday's $37.38 closing price.

T Gains?

Adding the $1.04 annual estimated dividend to my $4.62 estimate of AT&T's price upside shows a $4.66 potential gross gain, per share, which will be reduced by any costs to trade these shares.

Say, for costs, we put a little over $1,000.00 today into AT&T Inc. at its recent $37.38 price, we'd buy 27 shares of T.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us about $0.37 per share.

Subtract that $0.37 brokerage cost from the estimated $4.66 gross estimated gain per share leaves a net gain of $4.29 X 27 shares = $115.83 or an 11.55% net gain on a $1,009.26 investment.

Therefore, AT&T Inc, whose trading ticker symbol is T shows a possible 11.55% net gain including a 5.46% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if AT&T Inc is worth your time and money.