Bridgewater Associates Acquires Dell and UnitedHealth, Divests AT&T Shares
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Feb 19 2026
0mins
Should l Buy T?
Source: Barron's
- Portfolio Changes: Bridgewater Associates made significant adjustments to its investment portfolio in the fourth quarter.
- Exiting Investments: The hedge fund exited its position in a major wireless carrier as part of its strategy.
- Healthcare Holdings: Bridgewater also readjusted its investments in the healthcare sector.
- Market Position: As the largest hedge fund globally by assets under management, these changes reflect its ongoing strategy to optimize performance.
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Analyst Views on T
Wall Street analysts forecast T stock price to rise
15 Analyst Rating
8 Buy
5 Hold
2 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 28.010
Low
20.00
Averages
28.27
High
33.00
Current: 28.010
Low
20.00
Averages
28.27
High
33.00
About T
AT&T Inc. is a holding company. The Company is a provider of telecommunications and technology services globally. The Company’s segments include Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment provides wireless and wireline telecom and broadband services to consumers located in the United States and businesses globally. The business units of the Communication segment include Mobility, Business Wireline, and Consumer Wireline. Mobility provides nationwide wireless service and equipment. Business Wireline provides advanced Ethernet-based fiber services, Internet Protocol (IP) Voice and managed professional services, as well as legacy voice and data services and related equipment, to business customers. Consumer Wireline provides broadband services, including fiber connections. Consumer Wireline provides legacy telephony voice communication services. The Latin America segment provides wireless services and equipment in Mexico.
About the author

Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Expansion of Fiber Coverage: AT&T's fiber services now reach over 36 million customer locations, with expectations to grow to 40 million by the end of 2026 and over 60 million by 2030, thereby strengthening its competitive position in the home internet market.
- Financial Guidance Reaffirmed: The company reiterated its financial and operational guidance for 2026 and beyond, including projected growth in adjusted EBITDA and EPS, as well as plans to return over $45 billion to shareholders from 2026 to 2028, reflecting strong confidence in future growth.
- Debt Management Strategy: Following the EchoStar transaction, AT&T expects its net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio to rise to approximately 3.2x but to decline to 3x by the end of 2026, indicating ongoing efforts to reduce leverage while maintaining a consistent capital return strategy.
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- Market Expansion Plans: AT&T aims to increase its fiber coverage from 32 million to over 40 million locations by the end of 2026, with an expected annual addition of 5 million locations, further solidifying its leadership in the fiber internet service market.
- Financial Outlook: AT&T reiterated its financial guidance for 2026 and beyond, expecting to return over $45 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during 2026-2028, enhancing investor confidence.
- Debt Management: Following the transaction with EchoStar, AT&T anticipates its net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio will rise to approximately 3.2x, then decline to about 3x by the end of 2026, demonstrating the company's ongoing commitment to reducing leverage.
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- Technical Support and Contributions: Founding supporters AT&T and AMD provide open telco models and computing power, ensuring AI delivers value across projects of varying scales, thereby enhancing overall efficiency in the telecom sector.
- Data and Benchmark Development: The new portal will establish benchmarks for telecom-specific tasks, tracking model performance through the Telco Capability Index, addressing the current issue where only 16% of telecom GenAI deployments are applied to network operations, and promoting industry standardization.
- Community Engagement and Challenges: The Open Telco AI initiative also engages over 1,000 registrants through the AI Telco Troubleshooting Challenge, encouraging developers and researchers to collaboratively solve real-world telecom AI problems, thus advancing practical technology applications.
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- New Collaborative Model: GSMA has launched the Open Telco AI initiative aimed at accelerating the development of telco-grade AI through collaboration among operators, vendors, and academic institutions, establishing an open platform for models, data, and tools to enhance AI capabilities in the telecom sector.
- Technical Support and Contributions: Founding supporters AT&T and AMD provide significant contributions, with AT&T offering open telco models that are hardware and cloud-agnostic, while AMD supplies compute capacity through its GPU platforms and TensorWave, facilitating the widespread adoption of telecom AI.
- Performance Assessment Mechanism: The newly introduced Telco Capability Index will track model performance across telecom-specific tasks, revealing that only 16% of telecom GenAI deployments are currently applied to network operations, highlighting the vast potential and demand for AI applications in the industry.
- Community Engagement and Challenges: The Open Telco AI initiative includes the AI Telco Troubleshooting Challenge, which attracted over 1,000 registrations, aimed at fostering collaboration among developers and researchers to solve real-world telecom AI problems and drive practical applications of telecom AI.
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