Do T-Mobile investors smell some bad news coming the carrier’s way?

Despite a blue chip rally, T-Mobile shares decline almost $10 a share

Aberrations bode poorly for T-Mobile

Here is another aberration that bodes very poorly for T-Mobile. As we already pointed out, the latter’s 52-week low of $165.66 is 79 cents or .48% below Thursday’s close. On the other hand, AT&T‘s shares closed 27.65% above its 52-week low, and Verizon‘s close on Thursday was 25.89% above its 52-week low. That is a big enough difference between T-Mobile and the other two that I really feel that dark clouds are forming around T-Mobile.

The carrier’s transition to a digital-first provider is probably the biggest story to watch when it comes to T-Mobile. This move, which forces T-Mobile subscribers to use the T-Life app to make purchases and manage their accounts, has already resulted in a drop in the carrier’s headcount as Mobile Experts have been let go.

T-Mobile also has been shuttering stores, something that we expected to see as the T-Life app became more important to T-Mobile customers. Another big story has been the forced migration of customers on older grandfathered plans such as Simple Choice, T-Mobile ONE, and Magenta. The reasons given by T-Mobile for doing this include its desire to end legacy billing and provide upgraded 5G features to those on older plans.

T-Mobile is about to make a new 52-week low. | Image by Google

T-Mobile is not worried that satellite-based direct-to-cell service could challenge the terrestrial wireless providers due to physical limitations including the inability of the satellite firms to penetrate certain structures with their signals. While T-Mobile might take an Alfred E. Neuman “What? Me worry?” carefree attitude about possible competition from SpaceX/Starlink and others, Wall Street seems to have concerns as the price of T-Mobile‘s stock has gone up and down on news about possible competition from the satellite firms.

T-Mobile’s largest shareholder thinks about combining with the company

T-Mobile executive has a large paper loss on his last purchase

On May 1, Almeida bought 5,097.44 shares of T-Mobile‘s U.S. common stock, paying prices ranging from $196.12 to $196.18. The total cost of the stock was $1,000,015. Those shares are now worth $848,467, giving him a paper loss of $151,548. Obviously, Almeida is not a short-term investor. Almeida owns 44,849.602 shares of T-Mobile which have declined by about $1.31 million in value since May 1.

The publicly traded Big 3 carriers have been moving opposite to the broad market and this has been going in for some time. This indicates that the big monied funds see the carriers as a defensive play, which is unusual for an industry that is still considered to be in the technology game. It also could mean that the best periods of growth for T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have long passed them by.