- Pays: quarterly — 169 dividends in our record since 1984, the Bell breakup era.
- The cut: April 2022 — the quarterly dropped from an adjusted $0.52 to $0.2775, roughly 47%, alongside the WarnerMedia spin-off. It ended what had been one of the market's most famous raise streaks.
- Since then: exactly $0.2775 for 18 consecutive quarters — four and a half years without a raise or a cut.
- Today's yield: $1.11 over the trailing year — about 4.3% of the recent ~$25.77 price.
- The comparison that matters: Verizon kept raising while AT&T froze — 21 straight rising years on VZ's chart against T's flat line since 2022.
AT&T is the market's standing lesson that a decades-long streak can end. The 2022 reset (paired with spinning off WarnerMedia) took the payout down nearly half in adjusted terms, and the years since have been a perfectly flat $0.2775 — a policy of stability at the new level, not recovery toward the old one.
Each point is one AT&T dividend since 1984. The four-decade climb, the 2022 step down, and the flat shelf since are the whole modern story in one line.
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Each point is one payment; the line ends at the most recent payout. The table below totals them by year.
- Trailing 12 months: $1.11 per share across 4 payments — up 0% from $1.11 in the 12 months before (split-adjusted, in today's share terms). What a change like that does to your income →
- Current pace: recent payments annualize to $1.11 — 0% above the trailing figure. When those two disagree, the trailing yield is quoting the past. Live cut & raise board →
- Share price, same 12 months: down 13% (dividends excluded) — income and principal are one story. Erosion Index →
- Record: 169 payments over 42 years; the largest single payment was $0.52 (Jan 2020), split-adjusted.
- Payment drops ≥20% below trend, last 24 months: none. Get one short email if that changes →
Every figure above is computed from T's actual payment record and share-price history as of the date shown — not copied from a fact sheet. Recomputed regularly; the chart above always shows the live data.
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| Recent Ex-Dividend Dates | Dividend / Share |
|---|
"Next expected" is estimated from T's recent payment rhythm — the fund announces exact dates shortly before each payout, and the data feed can lag a few days. You must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout; the cash typically arrives days later. See every fund's upcoming date on the live dividend calendar.
A real total-return estimate, assuming every payout was reinvested — including what happened to the share price. Before taxes and fees. Past performance does not predict the future.
Now Estimate Your Own Future
These are assumptions, not a prediction. Want the full chart and tax options? Open the full calculator →
The chart's shape answers the question every T holder asks: after the April 2022 cut (an adjusted $0.52 to $0.2775, alongside the WarnerMedia spin-off), the dividend simply stopped moving — 18 identical quarters and counting. Management chose a level it could defend with a smaller company and has defended it, without a single raise. The trailing year's $1.11 yields about 4.3% on today's price: real income, zero growth, and a record that says believe the flatness.
The instructive pairing is Verizon — same industry, opposite choice: VZ's annual payout has risen 21 straight years, at a similar yield. The compare tool puts the diverging lines on one chart.
| Year | Total Dividends / Share | Payments | Change vs Prior Year |
|---|
Data source: Yahoo Finance. Figures are per share; the current year may be partial and figures should be verified against official sources.
Calculated from complete calendar years in the data above. Past results don't guarantee future payments.
When Is T's Next Ex-Dividend Date?
T pays quarterly — usually going ex-dividend in early January, April, July, and October. The exact date of each payout is announced by the fund only shortly beforehand, so no site can promise the next date — but the live schedule box above shows the most recent ex-dividend date and the expected window for the next one, computed from T's actual payment rhythm. Remember: you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout.
Four Decades Up, One Step Down, Four Years Flat
Our AT&T record begins in 1984, when the Bell System's pieces started trading, and holds 169 quarterly payments. For most of that span the story was metronomic increases — the streak that made T a retirement-account fixture. Then April 2022: alongside the WarnerMedia spin-off, the quarterly reset from an adjusted $0.52 to $0.2775, a cut of roughly 47%. It has paid exactly $0.2775 every quarter since — eighteen of them.
The Flat Shelf, Read Honestly
A frozen dividend is information. It says management found the level it can defend and sees better uses for incremental cash — in AT&T's case, paying down the debt the old empire left behind. The trailing year's $1.11 per share is about 4.3% of the recent $25.77 price: a genuinely competitive yield, delivered with a record that promises nothing beyond repetition. Buyers today are purchasing the shelf, not the old staircase.
The Telecom Pair Trade
Every T analysis eventually becomes a T-versus-VZ conversation, and the records make it easy: similar yields, opposite dividend behavior — Verizon's 21 straight rising years against AT&T's frozen $0.2775. One pays you the same amount forever; one adds a penny-scale raise annually. The compare tool overlays them, and the estimator below shows what the difference compounds to over a decade.
How to Choose Dividend Stocks
Raise streaks, payout ratios, yield traps — the plain-English framework for telling durable payers from pretenders.
Read: How to Choose Dividend Stocks