Oppenheimer analysts just released an in-depth look at the first-quarter earnings for the communication, wireless and cloud stocks. Results were solid for the high-end wireless sector and okay for consumer wireline. Twelve of the companies Oppenheimer covers met or exceeded estimates, and five reported an earnings miss, with the more enterprise-focused companies guiding to weaker results. The analysts continue to believe that wireless data and cloud services are in the early stages of growth and that this, combined with online gaming, mobile video and social networking, will drive strong interest for many of the stocks in their coverage universe.

Here are the Oppenheimer stocks to buy, including a top three list.

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) is one of three top stocks to buy. Akamai has followed a steady pattern of reporting two consecutive strong quarters followed by one weaker quarter. Assuming this trend continues, the second quarter this year will be another strong quarter for the company. The Thomson/First Call price target for the stock is $47.

American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) is also in the top three. The Oppenheimer analysts think that American Tower is the favorite to acquire AT&T Inc.’s (NYSE: T) remaining tower portfolio, which would increase the company’s tower count by 50%. The consensus price objective for this top name is $91.50.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) rounds out the top three stocks to buy at Oppenheimer. Cable trends look solid for the remainder of the year, as the company was able to pass through a series of rate adjustments with only minor pushback. New acquisition NBCUniversal, had a much better first quarter than expected. The consensus target for the stock is $48. Investors are paid a 1.80% dividend.

Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) is another tower name to make the Oppenheimer stocks to buy list. Over the past four quarters, year-over-year sales growth has been 17%, 21%, 30% and 34%, respectively. As the weather warms up, it is likely the company will have additional equipment installations and repair work as network capital spending heats up. The consensus price objective for the stock is $86.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is one of two carriers to buy. The company expects much better results in its wireless business in the second quarter after a weak start to the year. The consensus for this blue chip name is $38. Investors are paid an outstanding 4.90% dividend.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) also grabs a spot on the stocks to buy list. Verizon Wireless will pay out a total $7 billion distribution in June to Verizon and Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) commensurate with their respective 55% and 45% stakes in the company. That puts Verizon’s share at $3.85 billion, and Vodafone will get $3.15 billion. The consensus price target for Verizon Communications is $54. Shareholders receive a 3.90% dividend.

RigNet Inc. (NASDAQ: RNET) is a small cap name that offers an interesting twist. The company provides network infrastructure services for the remote communications needs of the oil and gas industry. The consensus price objective for the stock is $27.50.

Interxion Holdings N.V. (NYSE: INXN) could be a play on growth in Europe. The company provides carrier-neutral colocation data center services in Europe. The consensus for the stock is at $21.41, way below the current trading level.

magicJack Vocal Tec Ltd. (NASDAQ: CALL) wraps up the list of stocks to buy at Oppenheimer. With television commercials that run constantly, the company provides consumers inexpensive voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) phone service. The consensus estimate for the stock is at $26. A move to the target would represent an almost 40% gain.

Even with the impressive stock market rally, investors can feel comfortable at least scale buying some of these top names. With an ever increasing consumer base around the world, growth prospects for these stocks seem very achievable.

We saw new positions taken in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) of 1 million shares and in Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) at 2.7 million shares. Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) was a new stake and that was put at 5 million shares.

Some 2.8 million shares were also seen in Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) which is likely an arbitrage play of sorts in a Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) deal over Verizon Wireless. Paulson also has a merger-arb piece left over in H. J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ) with a stake of 1 million shares.

Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CIE) was a new position, but this was put at about $80 million in shares and in debt securities combined. InterOil Corporation (NYSE: IOC) was a new stake of 1.87 million shares.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) was a new stake of 17 million shares which has since risen in value, but there was an additional $152 million in debt securities held there.

Paulson’s position in the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) was listed as 21,837,552 shares worth some $3.37 billion as of March 31. That compares to a December 31, 2012 value of $3.538 billion. Based upon the closing price of $134.63 on Wednesday, that value would be down to $2.94 billion as of now.

Some of these positions were higher in the after-hours from the report. With Paulson under much more criticism than praise of late, you have to wonder if the cynical view of shorting Paulson’s picks may start to take shape. Just keep in mind that Paulson’s losses in gold might not mean that he makes bad decisions elsewhere and indefinitely.

PAULSON’s FULL HOLDINGS

On Monday night came news that Verizon Wireless would pay out $7 billion in a dividend to co-owners Verizon and Vodafone. Verizon Communications owns 55% of Verizon Wireless, so it will receive $3.85 billion. Vodafone owns 45%, and it is set to receive $3.15 billion. Both payments will be made toward the end of June.

There are two takes here. One is that the move is by Verizon Communications to force a position for a buyout of Verizon Wireless. The other is that the move is meant to appease Vodafone and to keep from having to cough up tens of billions of dollars that would require a huge debt or equity offering to finance the deal.

Our view is that the dividend is move intended to kick the can down the road on any major M&A transaction. Verizon already greatly underyields rival AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) on its dividend, at 3.9% versus 4.8%. This move may allow Verizon to catch its dividend back up and perhaps deal with the Vodafone stake in Verizon Wireless in pieces, or at least further out on the calendar.

We tracked the short interest in these top dividend stocks: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP), Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Kimberly Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: KMP), Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ).

As we have said, it takes much more conviction to short sell a stock that has a very high dividend. On top of having to pay a broker loan-call rate to borrow the stock, the dividend payouts have to be paid, and the ex-dividend dates play into the equation as well. We compared the short interest settlement dates of April 30 and April 15 and gave added color compared to the recent past on each.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) saw a severe drop in the short interest, losing close to one-fifth of the shares short: 21.11 million versus 26.08 million. Altria’s dividend yield is now down to 4.8% since the stock is back up at highs.

American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP) saw a big 12% pop in the short interest to 4.34 million shares from 3.86 million shares, even though this stock remains high in price again. AEP’s dividend yield is at 3.8%.

Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) saw a minor drop as short sellers wanted to avoid paying that dividend, down to 25.6 million shares short versus 26.04 million. Annaly has a current yield of about 11.9%, based on its last payout.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) saw almost a 10% drop in its short interest to 71.73 million shares, versus 78.29 million shares. AT&T’s dividend is 4.8%.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) saw only a small decline in the short interest after what had previously been a very large drop. The short interest fell to 6.814 million shares from 6.853 million shares in the prior short interest. Before that it had been 7.8 million the prior report. This is again the lowest reading since October, but the days to cover rose to 3.41 from 2.43. Duke has a dividend yield of about 4.1%.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has seen some serious profit taking, and new bets come against after earnings. We just saw the second rise in the short interest, up to 94.248 million shares, at the end of April. This is up from 82.69 million shares before and from 78.92 million shares short two periods ago. Also note that GE’s short interest is the highest in almost a year now. The days to cover ticked down to 1.75 from 2.43 days, and GE outyields the other conglomerates with a 3.3% yield.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) saw a marginal decrease in the short interest after what had been a serious increase in the bets against its massive rise. Its short interest fell to 7.896 million shares, versus 8.05 million shares short in mid-April and 6.7 million as of the end of March. This consumer products giant finally has seen shares pull back a bit, and the dividend is 3.1%.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: KMP) saw its fourth straight gain in the short interest as of April 30, to 3.74 million shares (units). It was 3.728 million shares (units) in mid-April, and the March 28 short interest was 3.357 million units. This is yet again the highest short interest back to last November. Its dividend is actually a distribution and is the equivalent of about 6% now that the price has come back down a bit.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) saw a slight drop in the short interest to 26.57 million shares, but that was after the prior report jumped way up to 28.5 million shares from 21.33 million shares short. Merck’s dividend yield is about 3.8% now that shares have backed off marginally.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) saw a rather large drop of 16% in its short interest to 19.82 million shares from 23.6 million shares in mid-April. P&G’s dividend is back up to 3.1%, now that shares sold off $4 after earnings.

Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) saw a large gain in the short interest to 10.75 million shares, versus 9.676 million shares at the end of March and a prior near-term high of 10.38 million shares in mid-March. Reynolds has a yield of only about 4.9% as shares are close to new highs all over again.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) saw a slight uptick to 52.197 million shares short. This was 51.423 million shares as of April 15 and 57.637 million shares at the end of March. Verizon’s short interest peaked at more than 61 million shares short in February, and its dividend yield is down to 3.9%.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) short interest rose 14% to 94.25 million shares. About 0.9% of GE’s float is now short.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) saw short interest fall by 20.8% to 206.34 million shares, about 5.5% of the company’s total float.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) short interest fell 2.1% to 164.26 million shares, which represents 1.5% of the company’s float.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) saw a 1.5% rise in short interest to 52.2 million shares, which represents about 1.8% of the firm’s float.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) showed a rise of 13.1% in short interest, to 33.02 million shares, about 13.4% of Alpha’s float.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) showed a drop of 2.8% in short interest, to 11 million shares, about 15.1% of the company’s float.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw short interest rise by 107.2% to 41.59 million shares, or 2.4% of the company’s float.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) saw short interest rise by 0.2% to 164.69 million shares, or 33.3% of the total float.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted a 16.3% drop in short interest, to 99.42 million shares, about 1.3% of Microsoft’s float.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) short interest declined by 7.2%, to 22.35 million shares or about 1.5% of the company’s float.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw short interest decrease by 2.1% to 31.58 million shares or 26% of the company’s float.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) saw short interest rise by 1.2% to 58.7 million shares or about 1.1% of the company’s float.

The most interesting changes in this two-week period are the declines in short interest in Nokia, BlackBerry and Microsoft, as well as the concomitant doubling of short interest in Apple. That is a pretty clear indication that investors are betting that three players in the mobile sector are about to put more pressure on the sector leader.

Short interest in Dell declined for the third period in a row. It will be interesting to see if today’s offer from Carl Icahn and Southeastern Capital Management moves the needle at all. The new offer is certainly not one that cannot be refused.

Ergen said, “We’re not going to lose because we’ve got a better offer on the table.” Dish’s offer for Sprint is $7.10 in cash per share, along with a 32% ownership stake for Sprint shareholders in the combined company, tops Softbank’s cash offer of $6.38 a share and a 30% stake in Sprint.

Softbank has said that it will not improve its offer, but that was then. Ergen appears to expect a sweetened offer for Sprint from Softbank, and indicated yesterday that Dish would have to seek a private equity partner if Softbank put in a bid of $7.50 or $8.00 a share.

Ergen also made it very clear about what is important to Dish: the spectrum owned by Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR), a company controlled by Sprint and for which the wireless carrier already has offered to buy the rest of the company. Dish has tried before to acquire spectrum from Clearwire, only to be rebuffed. Now the gloves are off.

Ergen’s strategy — if he can acquire Sprint/Clearwire — is to leverage Dish’s satellite network with a terrestrial wireless network that would allow subscribers to get mobile wireless service as part of a single package. Verizon Wireless — still a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) — and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) both seek the same thing, but neither has the content licenses that Dish already has in place with the media companies.

That is a huge part of Ergen’s play here. Dish would be transformed virtually overnight into the only U.S. provider of a single, all-inclusive wireless-pay TV package that would allow customers seamless access to media content both inside and outside their homes.

Suddenly, Dish is a threat to what is essentially a duopoly at the top of the wireless industry in the United States. The FCC would be hard-pressed to deny a merger that promises to increase competition for consumers.

It is still early days, but the fight for Sprint/Clearwire has all the earmarks of being a good one for Sprint shareholders. Shares are trading now at $7.12, slightly above Dish’s cash offer of $7.10. If Softbank makes a higher bid, shares will shoot up on the expectation that Dish will top the offer.

Ergen has as much as said that Dish Network’s future depends on its acquisition of Sprint/Clearwire. Certainly Dish’s growth prospects are dim without a transformative deal like this, and there are no other deals out there like this one. For Dish, it is grow or die.

U.S. Cellular disclosed that it will start selling Apple products along with its corporate earnings report on Friday. In fact, this was the first tag line in its press release summary. As you will see, U.S. Cellular actually needs the iPhone to boost its business.

The company has declining sales and declining income. Revenues fell to $996.3 million from $1.02 billion a year ago. Earnings fell to $4.9 million from $62.5 million. That translates to a per-share drop to only $0.06 EPS from $0.73 a year ago.

U.S. Cellular is even small compared to Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), although it is involved in selling its Chicago, St. Louis, central Illinois and three other markets to Sprint Nextel for $480 million. At the time that deal was disclosed in late 2012, it covered its PCS Spectrum and almost 600,000 customers.

It only makes sense that the iPhone is coming to U.S. Cellular. The company said that it is bringing 4G LTE to 87% of its customers in 2013 and also is increasing its network capacity. 4G LTE smartphones were 76% of smartphones sold in the quarter in its core markets, while smartphones overall were 62% of devices sold.

The company said:

We have a number of strategies in progress to increase loyalty and attract more customers, including our announcement today that we will begin offering Apple products later this year. By further strengthening our device portfolio, we’ll give consumers another great reason to switch to U.S. Cellular, and enable our existing customers to choose from an even wider variety of iconic smartphones, and enjoy the outstanding U.S. Cellular customer experiences they deserve. Our smartphone penetration is currently 43 percent of core market customers and growing quickly. We believe there will be strong, ongoing demand for smartphones and data products and services from our customers, and we have significant room for growth in this area.

Our only question is how much it cost U.S. Cellular to bring the iPhone. Apparently, a lot. Shares are down 2% to $37.70, against a 52-week range of $33.16 to $41.54. U.S. Cellular’s market cap is $3.15 billion, but it is one of the few established telecom players that pays no dividend.

We would point out that the company also has a partnership with Verizon Wireless covering parts of the New York market. One thing to note is that this company has been a takeover candidate in the past. Nothing ever came of those rumors.

A low-end version of the Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) Lumia may be Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) best opportunity to get share in the mobile sector. (Reuters)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB) will investigate car lending companies over certain questionable practices. (Reuters)

Its property and casualty business pushes American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) results higher. (Reuters)

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) picks it chief operating officer to lead the company and disappoints investors who want change to move the firm beyond PCs. (Reuters)

CEO Ivan Glasenberg of the newly merged Glencore Xstrata says layoffs are critical to his plans. (WSJ)

Verizon Communication Inc.’s (NYSE: VZ) chief executive officer says Verizon Wireless may not pay its annual dividend to Verizon or Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) in the hope Vodafone will sell its shares. (WSJ)

The Reserve Bank of India cuts its rate to 7.25%. (WSJ)

Barnes & Noble Inc.’s (NYSE: BKS) Nook will start to run Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) apps. (WSJ)

Shares of LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) fall on a weak outlook. (WSJ)

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says the bank may decide to ease more after it cut its key rate to 0.5%. (WSJ)

The average home price in 100 of China’s largest cities moved up by the higher rate in a year-and-a-half. (WSJ)

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) discussions with Lenovo about selling its server division fail. (WSJ)

Market share improvement in North America, Asia and Europe push General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) shares higher. (WSJ)

A slew of regulatory issues badly damage J.P. Morgan & Co.’s (NYSE: JPM) role as the premier bank in the United States. (NYT)

Michael Bloomberg’s positive comments about the Financial Times cause more speculation he might buy it. (NYT)

Commercial mortgage trading by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac comes under scrutiny. (FT)

Siemens A.G. (NYSE: SI) cuts its forecast, which may pressure its CEO to leave. (Bloomberg)

Shoe company Adidas posts record profits. (Bloomberg)

The global economy continues to rely on central bank aide to prop up gross domestic product. (Reuters)

China’s move to 4G will give some equipment suppliers huge contracts. (Reuters)

Tough European sales may start to badly damage U.S. corporate earnings. (WSJ)

The government blocks cash payouts to some General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) executives. (WSJ)

The number of people in the U.S. looking for jobs fell to its lowest level since 1979 because of retiring baby boomers. (WSJ)

Fred Hassan leaves as the chairman of Avon Product Inc.’s (NYSE: AVP) board. (WSJ)

A move to dividend-paying stocks may be causing their prices to move too high. (WSJ)

More Republican members of Congress will support a tax on online sales. (NYT)

Cable firm AXS TV will start to run programming from AOL Inc.’s (NYSE: AOL) HuffPo Live. (NYT)

Passengers may well shy away from flying the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787, which recently fixed battery problems. (NYT)

Chat applications will continue to hurt revenue from texts, which have helped telecom earnings. (FT)

More Europeans may modify their positions on the value of austerity. (Bloomberg)

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) ups its commitment to $20 phones as it loses market share to smartphones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. (Bloomberg)

24/7 Wall St. praises dividends. We also want to call out the myriad of great companies that need to realize that times demand investor payouts. A few companies are still buying growth, and we have identified some of these players as well. The thesis behind offering a solid dividend is that it instills confidence in investors that the company has earnings visibility for years even when the business cycle slows.

Having a real dividend policy may also be the key to keeping nervous investors from fleeing and going into cash or Treasury bonds, which pay almost nothing these days. There are just still too many companies in denial that they are still growth companies when they need to start directly rewarding shareholders. Some companies can get away without paying out a single cent to owners because the value of growth is so strong. That list is shrinking these days. Most companies we identified are in what we would call the “Dividend Sinners” category.

Our review focuses on Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG), Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Express Scripts Inc. (NASDAQ: ESRX), Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK), Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER), United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: ZBRA). We have handicapped whether investors might expect a dividend in the near-term or long-term from each of these as well.

The first order of business is to identify some of the great companies that have started paying a dividend since we (and others) have called for them to act with dividend payments in the past year or two. A few would include Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) and NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ).