Key Takeaways
- Pfizer yields 6.0% and AT&T yields 5.2%, and neither company raised its dividend in 2026.
- AT&T’s dividend took 44% of its free cash flow over the 12 months to Sept. 30, 2026, while Pfizer’s took 89% over the 12 months to June 28.
- AT&T expects free cash flow of $21 billion or more in 2028, while analysts expect Pfizer’s revenue to shrink to $55.4 billion in fiscal 2028.
- SpaceX’s push into wireless is the main risk for AT&T, and patent losses on key drugs are the main risk for Pfizer.
Pfizer (PFE) yields 6.0% and AT&T (T) yields 5.2%. AT&T stock fell 8% on Oct. 23 after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is in talks for access to at least 80,000 cell sites to build a competing wireless network.
Pfizer went the other way and raised its 2026 guidance on Nov. 3. So if I can only hold one of these dividends for the next 10 years, which one gets my money?
| Metric | AT&T (T) | Pfizer (PFE) |
|---|---|---|
| Dividend yield | 5.2% | 6.0% |
| Annual dividend | $1.11 a share | $1.72 a share |
| Dividend growth, fiscal 2020-2025 | -11.8% a year | 2.5% a year |
| Cash dividend payout ratio (TTM) | 44% (to Sept. 30, 2026) | 89% (to June 28, 2026) |
| Net debt/EBITDA (LTM) | 3.27x | 1.9x |
| Interest coverage (LTM) | 3.9x | 6.98x |
Source: TIKR and StockAnalysis, Nov. 9, 2026.
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AT&T pays less, with plenty to spare
AT&T paid $1.11 a share in fiscal 2025, down from $2.08 in fiscal 2020, and its third-quarter release says it plans to keep the dividend at $1.11. What AT&T does have is cushion: over the 12 months to Sept. 30, 2026, its dividend took a well-covered 44% of free cash flow. Free cash flow has topped the dividends it paid in every fiscal year since 2016:
Management expects more: free cash flow of $18 billion or more in 2026, rising to $21 billion or more in 2028. Third-quarter revenue rose 5.3% from a year earlier to $32.3 billion. On the third-quarter call, CEO John Stankey made the case for fiber plus wireless: “the most durable customer combination in our industry is a fiber-fed broadband customer with a great wireless service on top of it, bar none.”
Net debt is 3.3x EBITDA after AT&T’s EchoStar spectrum purchase, and the company doesn’t expect to get back to its 2.5x target until 2029. SpaceX also agreed on Oct. 8 to buy low-band spectrum from Grain Management for Starlink Mobile, a new threat to the wireless cash flow behind this dividend.
Pfizer pays more, with far less behind it
Pfizer’s dividend is the bigger check, and its record is longer: the $0.43 a share it declared on Oct. 6 was its 352nd consecutive quarterly dividend. Pfizer paid $1.29 a share over the first nine months of 2026, so that fourth-quarter payment brings the year to $1.72, the same as fiscal 2025. Over the 12 months to June 28, 2026, the dividend took a risky 89% of free cash flow, and in two of the last three fiscal years, free cash flow fell short of it:
Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla spoke to the dividend on Pfizer’s second-quarter call: “We feel extremely confident that we will — even the most stretched scenarios that we are running, we will be able to maintain our dividend.”
The business has some momentum. Products Pfizer launched or acquired grew 32% operationally in the third quarter. The Nov. 3 raise lifted Pfizer’s 2026 revenue guidance to $62.0-$64.0 billion, from $60.5-$62.5 billion.
So which dividend wins?
AT&T gets my dividend dollars for the next 10 years. Pfizer does pay more: at each dividend’s pace now, $10,000 in Pfizer pays about $6,685 over the decade, against about $5,200 for AT&T. But Pfizer only gets there by raising its dividend 2.4% a year, its fiscal 2025 pace, and it didn’t raise at all in 2026. Analysts expect its revenue to fall from $62.6 billion in fiscal 2025 to $55.4 billion in fiscal 2028, as IBRANCE, XTANDI and Eliquis outside the US lose exclusivity:
A dividend that already eats most of Pfizer’s free cash flow has little room to grow on shrinking sales. AT&T’s has room to spare. Over 10 years, I’ll take that cushion over an extra $1,485.
This isn’t to say Pfizer’s dividend is in trouble. Its balance sheet is the stronger of the two, at 1.9x net debt to EBITDA, and management says it has line of sight to high-single-digit yearly revenue growth from the end of 2028 through 2033. It’s just that, when it comes down to it, I trust AT&T’s cushion more.
Of course, SpaceX’s wireless plans are still taking shape. If they turn into a price war, AT&T’s free cash flow is the number I’ll be watching.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
