Cogent Communications Holdings (CCOI) should be some of the primary Covid-recovery beneficiaries in the sector. Each of their earnings declined in 2020, and all saw some multiple contraction. The result was stocks that badly lagged the market. AT&T likely has the most cyclical profile of the telecom companies, given its large WarnerMedia entertainment subsidiary. Movie theater closures, canceled or delayed sports events, and cost-conscious advertisers hurt results there in 2020. Verizon has a smaller advertising-reliant segment: Verizon Media, which includes Yahoo and other brands. “In 2021, we expect the media space to broadly recover, although it could be somewhat choppy and back-half weighted in 2021 (particularly with a still uncertain economic outlook and many movie theaters closed to the public),” wrote Luebchow. “We broadly believe that we will reach (or even eclipse) 2019 media revenues at [AT&T and Verizon] by FY2022, which should be boosted in AT&T’s case by our expectation for broad adoption of its streaming platform HBO Max (which should be more of a beneficiary of broad economic lockdowns).”