AT&T (NYSE:T) Trading 1% Higher

Shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) traded up 1% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $17.04 and last traded at $17.02. 7,202,652 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 38,737,453 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on T. StockNews.com downgraded AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Citigroup increased their target price on AT&T from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on AT&T from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.81.

AT&T Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $121.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.15, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.67.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. AT&T had a net margin of 11.13% and a return on equity of 14.63%. The business had revenue of $30.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that AT&T Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

AT&T Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.68%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of T. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,118,288,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 185.6% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $790,301,000 after acquiring an additional 34,189,954 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of AT&T by 130.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $863,884,000 after acquiring an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AT&T in the fourth quarter worth approximately $316,472,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in AT&T by 38.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 34,558,594 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $519,070,000 after buying an additional 9,518,478 shares in the last quarter. 57.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AT&T Company Profile

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.