Investors can't seem to get behind U.S. telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T). The stock price is down almost 16% from a decade ago, enough price action for most to declare the stock "dead." The company was purely focused on telecom, then became a media conglomerate.
Finding stocks trading below book value per share can sometimes turn up companies that are undervalued and worth further analysis. In accounting jargon, book value is a company's total assets minus liabilities and is sometimes referred to as shareholders' equity. This is currently the case for Calvin Klein owner PVH (NYSE: PVH), AT&T (NYSE: T), and Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA), which are all trading below their book value at the time of writing.
AT&T (NYSE: T) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) are generally regarded as conservative income investments rather than high-growth plays. AT&T still pays a forward dividend yield of 5.4% following its spin-off of Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD), and Cisco pays a forward yield of 3.5%. Should investors buy either of these blue chip tech stocks as defensive plays against inflation, rising interest rates, and other macro headwinds?